Persistently infected (PI) animals should have their location details published, according to 72% of responses to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the next stage of the Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) scheme.

When asked how long farmers should have between finding the PI and publishing location details, the most popular response was four weeks.

Most of the responses were keen to ensure that there was enough time to allow a retest of the PI animal along with results uploaded to ScotEID.

Respondents felt that neighbours at risk of “over the fence” contact needed to know if there was a PI in the district.

Others felt that there should be an interactive map showing PI locations which would allow farmers to assess the risks when buying cattle.

Most responses were also keen to ban all cattle movements from herd where one or more PIs were present.

This would prevent sale of cattle to slaughterhouses, which is currently permitted.

A further 73% of people wanted PIs to be housed separately to stop the spread of infection, with just over half of the responses wanting these premises inspected to insure compliance.

There was also strong demand for more animals to be included in the “check test”, to ensure results are more robust.