The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) livestock committee chair, Michael O’Connell has said that the addition of the bluetongue virus vaccination as an option in the 2026 beef and sheep welfare schemes is welcome, however he stated that in order to encourage farmers to vaccinate their herd, there are more practical options that could be offered to them.

O’Connell has spoken about concerns the ICMSA has had about the effect bluetongue can have on breeding, saying:

“the ICMSA wants farmers to be proactive over the next short while in anticipation of the breeding season to ensure they have minimised the chances of infection. We have to be as the effects of the virus as reported to us by colleagues in other member states is seriously detrimental in terms of abortions, foetal abnormalities, ill thrift, loss of thrive and, in most severe cases, death.”

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O’Connell emphasised the need to immediately encourage and support farmers to vaccinate for bluetongue.

O’Connell said that the vaccine could also be added to other schemes like the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Scheme (SCEP) and could replace other “less practical requirements.”

“Farmers who are members of the SCEP scheme must be part of the Bord Bia Sustainable Beef and Lamb Assurance Scheme (SBLAS) but, in reality, this serves no purpose to the majority of these farmers who are selling weanlings. Put bluntly: customers in Italy aren’t worried whether our weanlings are quality assured or not,” he stated.

The past number of weeks have been quite challenging from a trade point of view, and we don’t need animal health issues in the future hampering herd performance

“We believe the introduction of an option of vaccination to the scheme, as opposed to being a member of SBLAS, could potentially prove very useful in the long run. Our feeling would be that if we face issues regarding BTV cases, we will, as sure as night-follows-day, find issues with farmers meeting the criteria requirements in SCEP such as meeting the requirement of calving at least 50% of the yearly reference number.

“The past number of weeks have been quite challenging from a trade point of view, and we don’t need animal health issues in the future hampering herd performance,” O’Connell commented.

Additionally, O’Connell has called for the bluetongue vaccine to be added to the Dairy Beef Weighing Scheme, stating: “our members are currently spending thousands on an annual basis on routine vaccines such as salmonella, lepto, rotavirus, IBR, etc, the addition of an extra vaccination is another headache.

“The option should be included as an amendment to the Dairy Beef Weighing Scheme for farmers to select use of bluetongue vaccination for their breeding animals or the weighing of that scheme year’s calves.

O’Connell spoke about the need to reward farmers for best practice and to encourage them to protect their herds and livelihoods.

“The weighing component of the scheme is helpful from a performance point of view but the €20/head payment would go a long way towards herd vaccination”, he said.