Animal Health and Welfare Northern Ireland (AHWNI) is advising farmers to ensure that there are no cattle in their herds that could be potential sources of BVD infection.
According to AHWNI, animals with undisclosed infection can present a BVD risk to the rest of the herd, to neighbouring herds, or to purchasing herds, by being the cause of transient infections that allow the virus to circulate.
It said that the presence of the BVD virus in a herd can be very costly, as its immunosuppressive effects can put transiently infected cattle at risk of pneumonias and scours.
The AHWNI highlighted that this month (June 2025), the Department of Agriculture, Enterprise and Rural Affairs (DAERA), commenced the process of restricting herds with more than 20
cattle over 30 days of age that have not had a BVD test result recorded.
It claimed that just over 100 herd owners have been informed that their herd will be restricted after 28 days if all animals over 30 days of age are not BVD tested.
It also said that all moves in and out will be prohibited, except for movements to direct slaughter.
Farmers who receive a warning letter from DAERA are strongly advised to act without delay to avoid their herd being restricted.
BVD
AHWNI has said that from December 1, 2025, the threshold will be changed, so that movement restrictions will be applied by DAERA on herds with 10 or more BVD unknown status (BVDU) cattle.
It also explained that restrictions on herds with BVDUs will be lifted immediately on confirmation of a negative BVD result for all cattle more than 30 days old.
In a statement, AHWNI said: “Testing should be carried out using supplementary tags or blood
samples taken by a private vet.
“As the drive to stamp out BVD continues, herd owners are urged to test newborn calves promptly and to ensure that test results are returned for all cattle. Any that have a ‘no sample’ report returned should be retested as soon as possible,” it added.
