Given that we are into a new year, it is a good time to look back at what was missed in 2014 and try to put that right in 2015.
What really comes to mind is that the compulsory tissue tag testing for bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) seems to have missed another deadline.
Two years ago, we were led to believe that a BVD eradication scheme was imminent and that anyone who joined the voluntary stage of the programme would have this count towards their three years of compulsory testing.
I wonder where they stand now. Are these farmers now entering their last year in a programme that hasn’t even started?
We are led to believe that there are people working hard on this behind the scenes. Forgive me if I sound sceptical, but does it really take that long or is it just that there is not the collective will among government and industry to implement it?
The best guess at the moment is late summer before a compulsory programme is up and running, if in 2015 at all.
I look very enviously at our neighbours across the border and wonder how they have got so far ahead of us in eradicating BVD.
I thought that NI was the envy of other countries in Europe with our high health status. We now look like falling so far behind that it could take years (if not decades) to catch up. But what is this BVD and why do we need to eradicate it?
When I am out doing AI work on farms, lots of farmers ask me why their cows will not go in calf or why they repeat after being in calf for a few months.
The first thing I ask them is if they test for BVD. I get lots of answers about not knowing what BVD is, but mostly they say that they have not got BVD in their herd. In most cases, that is just an assumption – few have the proof to back up their claim.
Everyone should consider the following questions:
Have you ever had fertility problems?Have you had cows repeat after three or four months?Have you had problems with scour?Have you had problems with pneumonia?Have you had weak or deformed calves?Have you had any cattle that would not thrive, no matter what you tried?If you have ever had any of these (and others not listed), then you could have a problem with BVD.
The tissue tag testing only costs around £2 extra per tag set and this tests both cow and calf. How far would this go if you had to get the vet out?
It’s a no-brainer and anyone who doesn’t do the tissue tagging is throwing their money away.
Some people are always looking for factories to give them more money, but here is money to be saved with minimal effort.
My opinion is that you are better finding out if you have a problem and dealing with it. I have been vaccinating against BVD for seven years and tissue tagging for three years, but this year I had my first persistently infected (PI) calf.
After the shock and dis-belief, I started to investigate the source and discovered that the infection probably originated from a neighbour’s herd.
I approached him just to alert him that he might have a problem. He said that he had fertility problems with his cows, but he was not going to do the tissue tagging unless it became compulsory. I just shook my head and left.
I have decided (as a new year’s resolution) to try to push this issue as much as possible, because I believe that farmers have so much to gain from eradicating production diseases, such as BVD.
I would also like to see all the farming organisations prioritise it as an issue during 2015.
Farmers who care about their future in farming and the greater good of the whole farming industry should start tissue tagging now. It is time to take action and get rid of this disease once and for all.
Given that we are into a new year, it is a good time to look back at what was missed in 2014 and try to put that right in 2015.
What really comes to mind is that the compulsory tissue tag testing for bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) seems to have missed another deadline.
Two years ago, we were led to believe that a BVD eradication scheme was imminent and that anyone who joined the voluntary stage of the programme would have this count towards their three years of compulsory testing.
I wonder where they stand now. Are these farmers now entering their last year in a programme that hasn’t even started?
We are led to believe that there are people working hard on this behind the scenes. Forgive me if I sound sceptical, but does it really take that long or is it just that there is not the collective will among government and industry to implement it?
The best guess at the moment is late summer before a compulsory programme is up and running, if in 2015 at all.
I look very enviously at our neighbours across the border and wonder how they have got so far ahead of us in eradicating BVD.
I thought that NI was the envy of other countries in Europe with our high health status. We now look like falling so far behind that it could take years (if not decades) to catch up. But what is this BVD and why do we need to eradicate it?
When I am out doing AI work on farms, lots of farmers ask me why their cows will not go in calf or why they repeat after being in calf for a few months.
The first thing I ask them is if they test for BVD. I get lots of answers about not knowing what BVD is, but mostly they say that they have not got BVD in their herd. In most cases, that is just an assumption – few have the proof to back up their claim.
Everyone should consider the following questions:
Have you ever had fertility problems?Have you had cows repeat after three or four months?Have you had problems with scour?Have you had problems with pneumonia?Have you had weak or deformed calves?Have you had any cattle that would not thrive, no matter what you tried?If you have ever had any of these (and others not listed), then you could have a problem with BVD.
The tissue tag testing only costs around £2 extra per tag set and this tests both cow and calf. How far would this go if you had to get the vet out?
It’s a no-brainer and anyone who doesn’t do the tissue tagging is throwing their money away.
Some people are always looking for factories to give them more money, but here is money to be saved with minimal effort.
My opinion is that you are better finding out if you have a problem and dealing with it. I have been vaccinating against BVD for seven years and tissue tagging for three years, but this year I had my first persistently infected (PI) calf.
After the shock and dis-belief, I started to investigate the source and discovered that the infection probably originated from a neighbour’s herd.
I approached him just to alert him that he might have a problem. He said that he had fertility problems with his cows, but he was not going to do the tissue tagging unless it became compulsory. I just shook my head and left.
I have decided (as a new year’s resolution) to try to push this issue as much as possible, because I believe that farmers have so much to gain from eradicating production diseases, such as BVD.
I would also like to see all the farming organisations prioritise it as an issue during 2015.
Farmers who care about their future in farming and the greater good of the whole farming industry should start tissue tagging now. It is time to take action and get rid of this disease once and for all.
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: