£400,000 drive to eradicate BVD in Scottish herds

THE first steps in ridding Scotland's cattle of a pernicious wasting disease will be announced today with Cabinet secretary, Richard Lochhead giving a commitment to spend £400,000 as part of an eradication plan for Bovine Viral Diarrhoea.

BVD causes abortion, infertility, failure to thrive and often death. It is thought to be present in about 40 per cent of herds in Scotland.

Speaking ahead of a meeting of farmers in Drymen, Lochhead said that even although there was unprecedented pressure on public finance, the government's commitment was there to eradicate the disease.

"Ridding Scotland's cattle of BVD will generate an additional 50 million to 80m to the industry over the next ten years. For the average dairy business this will be worth 16,000 per year and around 2,000 to the average beef business."

The programme will be undertaken in three stages with the first offering subsidised screening tests for farmers of breeding herds. The Scottish Government will subsidise testing in each herd by 36 and provide a further 72 for follow up tests and advice in positive herds.

An annual testing requirement on all cattle herds will then be introduced from September 2011 and, from September 2012, all cattle identified as persistently infected - there are some 2,000 to 4,000 of these in Scotland - will need to be housed in secure facilities or slaughtered.

A final phase could see movement restrictions introduced on herds that failed to tackle BVD.