Brucellosis testing will finish from next Spring

AN end to brucellosis testing after 40 years is now on the cards following the application by Northern Ireland to have the Six Counties declared ‘brucellosis free’.

Galway IFA Livestock Committee Chairman, Michael Flynn, told the Farming Tribune that by late Spring/early Summer of next year, the whole of Ireland should be declared brucellosis free.

He pointed out that the Republic could have opted to end testing in 2011, but that this was deferred until the entire island could be designated brucellosis free.

“I suppose that this is one of the good news stories on the animal disease front in Ireland – if things had been done correctly, this could have been achieved many years back,” said Michael Flynn.

He predicted that the ending of brucellosis testing would save farmers millions of euro each year in testing and laboratory fees and was overall ‘a very welcome development’.

Last week, the North’s Agriculture Minister, Michelle O’Neill, announced the the age threshold for brucellosis testing was increasing from 12 to 24 months – the window for a single movement test will also be extended in the Six Counties from 30 to 60 days.

In March of 2015, it will be exactly three years since the last confirmed case of brucellosis in the North, leaving them free to apply for brucellosis free status.

Brucellosis free status was achieved in the Republic in 2009 and while testing could have ended here in 2011, the main farming organisations and the Dept. of Agriculture decided it would be prudent to keep on limited testing, until the North achieved a similar status.

The IFA at national level have estimated that the ending of testing in the South will result in overall annual savings of €6m – at present, bulls and heifers over the age of 24 months being sold at the marts, have to be brucellosis tested.

According to Michael Flynn, over recent years, brucellosis testing has been confined to just 20% of herds in the Republic, concentrated mainly on herds with high movements.

“This is an important milestone in disease eradication in Ireland and it will also represent an important saving in testing fees for Irish farmers,” said Michael Flynn.