The commencement of the second phase of the Johne’s Disease Control Programme has been announced today (Wednesday, November 28).
The announcement was made by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed.
Creed welcomed the industry-wide agreement on the introduction of the second phase of the Johne’s Disease Control Programme.
He said: “Much important information was gleaned from the pilot programme in putting together the framework for the new Irish Johne’s Disease Control Programme.
The new programme will run for a period of four years and will be funded by farmers, processors and the state with registrations commencing in the coming week.
The minister said: “My Department will contribute a total of €600,000 in 2019 towards the new programme on a cost sharing basis and this contribution will rise in the following years as the numbers of participants increase.”
Continuing, Creed outlined that his department had already allocated financial support to the earlier Johne’s Disease pilot programme which ran over the period 2014 – 2016.
“The agreement is further testament of the excellent work being done by Animal Health Ireland (AHI) in underpinning Ireland’s expanding dairy industry.”
Creed expressed his gratitude to the various industry stakeholders, including farmers, dairy processors, veterinarians and his own department, that make up the implementation group “for their diligent work in finalising the new programme”.