Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue has urged renewed caution on bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) ahead of the 2024 breeding season.
The minister said that the “highest-risk period” for BVD occurs over the next number of months and that as prevalence reduces, so does the natural immunity of the national herd.
This, along with decreased overall use of vaccination, places herds at increased risk if infection enters a herd, according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
The minister outlined the two most important steps for preventing the spread of BVD as follows:
- If herds have BVD test positive results in 2024, farmers should promptly engage with the BVD control programme, quickly remove all test positive animals, and complete the vaccination programme;
- Farmers with herds which had test positive cattle in 2023 should complete their follow-up 2024 vaccination programme ahead of the breeding period.
The minister urged farmers to be mindful of the importance of biosecurity practices.
“Including attention to boundary fences, inward and outward movement of cattle, vaccination, the washing and disinfection of any shared machinery, equipment or facilities, to reduce the risk of infection so that we as a country can achieve BVD free status, providing long term benefit for livestock farmers,” Minister McConalogue said.
Herds that have been notified of BVD test positive cattle in their neighbourhood should seek advice from their veterinary practitioner, review their biosecurity practices, including vaccination policies, and enhance these where needed.
BVD progress
The department stated that research shows a BVD outbreak costs €63 per cow in dairy herds and €32 per cow in suckler herds.
Since the commencement of the BVD eradication programme in 2013, there has been progress with infections in the herd level.
The incidence rate decreased from 11.27% in 2013 to 0.23% at the end of 2023, more than a fifty-fold reduction.
Epidemiological investigations have identified the emergence of a small number of local clusters of infection, with infection having spread between herds, which is thought to result from the movement of animals, equipment and people, according to DAFM.
Herds within 5km of a positive herd are at an increased risk and the risk is highest for those herds within 400 metres of test positive herds.