Northern Ireland’s BVD eradication programme is to take a significant step forward by banning persistently infected (PI) animals from entering a slaughter plant from 1 May 2018.

The move will leave farmers retaining PI animals with no outlet for those animals.

Meat plants will only accept animals over 12 months of age until 30 April. Farmers are advised to humanely dispose of PI animals under 12 months, with disposal charges discounted by 33% for animals delivered before 1 May.

The Republic of Ireland’s BVD national eradication plan has reduced the number of PI animals from 13,876 in 2013 to 2,383 in 2017.

Herds with PI animals fell from 9,485 herds to 1,596. This has been driven by Department of Agriculture movement restrictions, higher disposal payments, tighter disposal timelines and so-called ‘‘name-and-shame’’ letters being sent to neighbouring herds.

However, a small number of herds retaining PI animals prevent the eradication programme from moving on to the next level.

Restriction

Some industry sources maintain that compulsory removal of PIs may be required to deal with the small cohort of animals being retained on farms.

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