Neighbours of farmers holding on to persistently infected (PI) calves will soon receive a letter informing them of their neighbour’s actions, the Irish Farmers Journal can exclusively reveal.

In April, the Department of Agriculture confirmed that measures were being explored to write to neighbours of farmers who continue to retain PI calves. This was the latest attempt to push towards a bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) free status.

The Department has now confirmed that after working directly with some farmers, letters will be sent to the neighbours of those who continue to retain PI calves in their herd. While not confirmed, the letters are expected to go to the neighbours of farmers holding on to PI animals from 2014 and 2013.

“As a preliminary step to writing to farmers whose neighbours were retaining PI animals, the Department has in recent weeks been engaged in restricting herds which have retained PI animals. There has been a very positive response to this exercise and a considerable number of farmers who had been retaining PI animals are now moving them directly to slaughter,” a Department of Agriculture spokesperson confirmed to the Irish Farmers Journal.

“As the next step in the process, the Department will shortly be sending a letter to the neighbours of farmers continuing to retain PI animals in their herds, informing them of the situation. The names of the farmers retaining PI animals have not been published in any other format,” the spokesperson added.

According to the latest Animal Health Ireland (AHI) results, there are still 3,788 herds classified as positive herds. This is significantly down from 4,701 herds in the corresponding period of 2014.

There were 5,730 calves classified as PI animals compared with 7,336 for the same period in 2014.

Looking at 2015 data, the number of herds which have retained 2015-born PI animals has halved from 1,508 to 704.

While the figures are not huge, the fact that there could be multiple farmers bordering a farm with PI calves is where the real danger lies.

Mike Magan, chair of AHI, said that the move by the Department is necessary to ensure BVD eradication.

“I welcomed the proposal by the Department and, hopefully, it will help finish the work of the BVD implementation group of finally eradicating BVD from the national herd. It’s in all our interests to ensure BVD is full eradicated and we all must ensure that it is done in a timely fashion,” Magan said.

In recent weeks, it was also confirmed that tissue tag-sampling for BVD will have to be continued for at least another year.