Written answers

Wednesday, 3 March 2021

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Animal Diseases

Photo of Jackie CahillJackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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1052. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the timeframe for compulsory testing of bovine viral diarrhoea, BVD, on herds as with brucellosis in which testing is done and results are available within five working days; if it is the same with BVD; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11267/21]

Photo of Jackie CahillJackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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1053. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason it is necessary to have a three-week delay to BVD testing on herds in which a persistently infected animal is found, given that in many cases more than one animal is persistently infected; his views on whether it is more practical to do it immediately in circumstances in which a persistently infected animal is found; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11268/21]

Photo of Jackie CahillJackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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1054. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if research has been carried out to examine whether there is BVD in wildlife, especially deer and badgers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11269/21]

Photo of Jackie CahillJackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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1055. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if post-mortems are carried out on deer and badgers to test the status of the animals for BVD; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11270/21]

Photo of Jackie CahillJackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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1056. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason for the outbreaks of BVD that have tested clear for the past eight years and now have persistently infected animals in the herd; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11271/21]

Photo of Jackie CahillJackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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1057. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the budget set aside for compulsory testing of BVD for 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11272/21]

Photo of Jackie CahillJackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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1058. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of herds nationally that have had persistently infected animal positives up to 20 February 2021, by county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11273/21]

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1052 to 1058, inclusive, together.

At the outset, the Deputy should be aware that I am committed to achieving a BVD-free herd.

In 2021 to date, 119 tests have given positive results for BVD - these come from 65 herds. It does not follow, however, that all these animals are PI animals and as we are now advancing towards final eradication, all such herds are subject to follow up investigation and supports to ensure any suspicion of disease is dealt with.

Table 1 indicates the number of BVD positive test results recorded in individual animals by county from 1stJanuary 2021 to 20thFebruary 2021.

Table 1. The number of BVD surveillance test positive results disclosed in each county between 1st January 2021 and 20thFebruary 2021.

County Number of animals
Cavan 4
Clare 2
Cork 9
Galway 3
Kerry 6
Kildare 7
Kilkenny 1
Laois 15
Limerick 4
Louth 10
Mayo 2
Meath 11
Monaghan 3
Offaly 13
Roscommon 3
Sligo 2
Tipperary 12
Waterford 9
Westmeath 3
Total 119

Compulsory surveillance testing for BVD nationally is conducted on tissue tags submitted by the herdowner to a private designated laboratory. This is a commercial matter between the herdowner and their choice of designated laboratory.

For blood samples collected during a herd investigation following a test positive result in 2021 and 2022, DAFM had a budget assigned to the BVD programme to support this industry-led eradication effort by offsetting the payments for the small number of affected farmers.

Herds are at risk of disclosing a BVD positive test result for many different reasons. Research demonstrates herds are at risk of introducing infection into their herd through a number of routes including direct or indirect contacts - such as contiguous contacts, purchasing animals including so called 'trojan animals' – pregnant animal carrying a BVD positive calf. Ireland records a large number of farm to farm movements, approximately 2.8 million moves direct farm to farm and through marts annually.

Post mortems are not conducted on badgers and deer as part of the BVD programme. International research suggests that wildlife does not play a key role in the transmission of BVD within or between farms.

The three week standstill period is used to allow for any likely transient infection (TI) to reduce in the herd and/or any potentially newly infected animal to react to the test. The BVD technical working group has recommended to the BVD Implementation group that a three-week standstill period after the removal of the test positive BVD animals is necessary to ensure a more comprehensive evaluation of the health status of all the animals in the herd and to ensure the best outcome for the individual herds and for the success of the programme.

As agreed by the BVD Implementation Group, the arrangement for the 2021 and 2022 programme is that blood collected during the whole herd sampling will be sent to private laboratories designated for BVD virus testing in blood. Compulsory screening testing continues as is through the laboratories designated for BVD virus testing in ear notch samples. The turnaround time can vary with the different samples submitted i.e. tissue or blood. Tissue tag testing is a high throughput and highly automated test, with over two million samples tested a year in Ireland, and laboratories involved have to comply with strict turnaround times as indicated in their designation criteria. It is estimated that up to a maximum of 45,000 blood samples will be collected in 2021 as part of the BVD compulsory herd testing programme, and samples submitted can greatly vary from week to week, thus the testing process is more manual and there is likely that some variation around turnaround times will occur.

Thus far in 2021, only a small number of herds have completed the whole herd test and they have been tested in DAFM laboratories, so turnaround times are not yet available that would reflect the full group.

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