NFUS backs cattle disease action

FOLLOWING a series of around the country meetings with members, NFU Scotland has thrown its weight behind a plan for a national eradication scheme for bovine viral diarrhoea.

The overwhelming view from union members was that BVD, a wasting disease in cattle, was of such serious financial and welfare significance to cattle producers that it merited a Scottish solution.

The Union believed eradication of the disease was realistic and potentially cost effective, but to achieve this would require a national scheme which would initially be voluntary and latterly being made compulsory.

Union vice-president Nigel Miller reckoned the positive response set the industry on the road to Scotland achieving disease-free status.

"This is a genuine opportunity for Scotland to rid its cattle herds of the scourge of BVD and it is encouraging that when we discussed plans with the members, the vast majority of written and verbal responses were in favour of permanently eradicating BVD," he said. "In addition, there was a significant degree of consensus on the means to achieve the desired outcome of Scotland being declared BVD-free at some point in the future.

"The Scottish Government's plans suggested that funding could be directed towards the removal of any persistently infected animals identified during the initial screening of herds."

While removal of these animals is key to disease eradication, our members agreed that the financial incentive could be better used to support screening and testing.

Miller said this approach would help those producers in Scotland who have already taken steps to tackle BVD and, at the same time, encourage producers who have yet to screen their animals to begin the process.