
Animal Health Ireland told to “get answers” as ICMSA express frustration on “never-ending BVD Eradication Programme”
ICMSA Dairy Committee Chairperson, Noel Murphy, has called on Animal Health Ireland to seek answers from the Minister of Agriculture, Food & the Marine regarding funding for the “seemingly never-ending” BVD Eradication Programme. Mr. Murphy said that farmers were also entitled to know when compulsory tissue tag testing is coming to an end.
“Following on from an adjourned BVD Implementation Group meeting in October, the members of that Group contacted the Minister and communicated our conviction that that it’s time for some hard questions and straight answers around the funding for a programme that is ongoing for nearly 12 years following an initial voluntary phase during 2012”, said Mr. Murphy.
Noting that funding has been put aside in Budget 2025 for animal health including BVD, the ICMSA Dairy Committee Chairperson said that it’s time for the Minister to publicly tell farmers where all this is going and what the end result will look like.
“ BVD testing is costing farmers €13 million directly per annum and a further three years of this programme is going to involve an additional €40 million directly from the farmers. It is likely that 2025 will see AHI seek ‘Freedom from BVD’ status but even assuming that that is applied for and granted, we are still apparently going to be looking at a further two-year monitoring phase post 2025. Who is going to pay for this? Because our members are expressing extreme unwillingness after a decade of paying out. Farmers have ordered their tags for 2025, but we are no further on regarding an answer from the Minister. Assuming that this seemingly never-ending programme is finally being wound down, we have to reject any more demands for farmers’ money”, said Mr. Murphy.
The ICMSA spokesperson said he was happy to acknowledge that the BVD programme had delivered with the number of PIs down to 0.02% of all calves tested in 2024. But the programme had gone on far too long and farmer patience – and willingness to subsidise the effort – were now at an end.
“I’m not sure that all the parties appreciate the fact that farmers are no longer willing to finance these endless programmes and just keep on ‘kicking-in’ to open-ended campaigns. The current TB figures stand as a damning indictment of this old strategy and farmers have had enough. AHI need to make a commitment as to when compulsory testing is going to end. Most farmers entered the scheme on a voluntary basis in 2012 on the basis of a three-year programme, 13 years later we are still BVD testing. We’ve had enough and we want a timeframe ASAP that maps out the ending of tissue-testing and the financing of a winding-down or post-2025 monitoring period”, he concluded.
Ends 30 January 2025
Noel Murphy, 086-3815575
Chairperson, ICMSA Dairy Committee
Or
Cathal MacCarthy, 087-6168758
ICMSA Press Office
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