Voas says cattle disease ‘eradicated in two years’
The battle to eradicate the pernicious wasting disease bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) from the Scottish cattle industry has been lengthy but yesterday Scotland’s chief vet claimed victory could come in the next two to three years.
Speaking at the Moredun Foundation meeting in the presence of HRH The Princess Royal, Sheila Voas said: “We can do this. We have the controls. We have the technology.”
Speaking afterwards, she admitted the planned eradication programme had not been easy and, as it had progressed, it had had to be tightened up. One example of this was when persistently infected cattle – the carriers of the disease – had been culled from herds but instead of heading straight for slaughter had gone on to farms for fattening, thus spreading the disease.
Despite such setbacks, several areas in Scotland were now clear of the disease, although there are still problems with BVD in some predominantly dairy areas.
Voas accepted the eradication programme might have worked to a tighter timescale but insisted it had been decided that it could only operate to a timetable acceptable to farmers and some farm businesses had not seen the benefit of doing anything despite the proven economic benefit.
She paid tribute to the scientists at Moredun who had developed diagnostics that had helped in the eradication programme, and then, indirectly challenged them to come up with a foolproof test for another wasting disease, Johnes.
After predicting the end of BVD, she hinted that it was time to target another disease. “The industry would like to see the back of Johnes but until we have a totally reliable test for it, we should not start as there would be a danger of getting rid of animals without total certainty about their health status.”
The driving force behind the BVD programme, former NFUS president Nigel Miller, chairman of Livestock Health Scotland, agreed the livestock industry would like to see Johnes removed from the scene but with no 100 per cent accurate test, said it would have to wait.
He suggested the industry might consider tackling infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), a highly contagious and infectious viral disease that affects cattle of all ages. IBR is endemic in the UK with around 40 per cent of cattle exposed to the virus in the past.
In the drive for better animal health and welfare, Voas saw possibilities in promoting such priorities in post-brexit farm policies.
However, she rejected fears that animal welfare in this country would suffer following a rejection last week by the UK government of an EU regulation where animals were considered as sentient beings.
“That may be important in some European countries but I do not think it will make a lot of difference here. I do not think there is any desire to go back,” she said.