%0 Journal Article
%T Considerations on BVD eradication for the Irish livestock industry
%A Damien J Barrett
%A Simon J More
%A David A Graham
%A Joe O'Flaherty
%A Michael L Doherty
%A H Michael Gunn
%J Irish Veterinary Journal
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/2046-0481-64-12
%X Animal Health Ireland (AHI) is an industry-led, not-for-profit partnership between livestock producers, processors, veterinary surgeons, animal health advisers and government. Its remit includes diseases and conditions of livestock which are endemic in Ireland, but which are not currently subject to regulation and coordinated programs of control.Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) emerged as a significant animal health concern in a survey of dairy and beef farmers and from a Delphi study of animal health experts [1]. As a result of these studies, BVD control was prioritised as an objective for AHI. A technical working group (TWG) was convened, which consisted of European specialists in bovine health management, of veterinarians from private practice with a special interest in BVD, as well as veterinarians from the state veterinary laboratory service, the pharmaceutical industry and the animal breeding industry. This group initially developed an externally reviewed guide for controlling BVD at individual farm level, outlining the steps required for an individual farmer to eliminate BVD virus from his herd and prevent further introduction of the infection [2]. In the course of the TWG discussions, it was clear that a framework for regional and/or national BVD control would be required to increase the uptake of BVD control at farm level and reduce the overall prevalence of the disease, which in turn will reduce the risk of re-introduction of the virus to those herds from which the disease has been eliminated.The purpose of this paper was to inform the debate in the livestock industry on a coordinated nation approach to the control/eradication of BVD in Ireland.Agriculture is a very significant contributor to the Irish economy. There are 6.6 million cattle in Ireland and this is made up of one million beef suckler cows and one million dairy cows [3]. There are approximately 128,000 land holdings in Ireland, of which approximately 85,000 breed cattle. The gross agricultural out
%U http://www.irishvetjournal.org/content/64/1/12