New statistics from the Animal Health and Welfare Northern Ireland (AHWNI) have shown that Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) is at its lowest rate of positives since the compulsory programme started to help eradicate BVD.
At the start of February 2024, there was 10 living retained positives in nine herds, while there was only a total of 36 known living positives. These were distributed across counties in Northern Ireland.
The latest results from AHWNI show that in Co. Tyrone there had been no infected animals retained for more than 28 days.
During January 2024, there were 61 BVD positives within 42 herds, with the majority of the positives occurring in Co. Armagh and Newry DVO areas.
January 2023 saw 84 positives within 63 herds which means there has been a decrease in affected herds year-on-year.
The spike in positive results is shown to have a seasonal pattern which usually increases during peak calving period, according to AHWNI.
However, the current set of statistics should be viewed “optimistically” and “impetus” must be given to the industry’s BVD eradication aims, according to the organisation.
The occurrence of new outbreaks of BVD has been frequently linked to infected livestock being introduced to the herd.
AHWNI suggested that the key risk might be from contaminated material being moved on to farms as the herds would not have been in contact with other livestock.
In breakdown herds, thorough cleaning and disinfection of pens, areas and equipment which would have been used by positive calves is vital, to reduce the risk of the virus spreading within the farmyard.
Thorough cleaning also helps reduce the risk of the virus being moved off the farm. In clean herds, good biosecurity and hygiene is vital to reduce the risk of the virus being introduced into the herd.