Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Andrew Muir has reminded herd owners in Northern Ireland that the grace period where they can avoid the application of bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) herd restrictions will be reduced on May 1, 2025.
From this date, herds with positive or inconclusive test results will be allowed a seven day “grace period” before restrictions are applied, down from the current 28-day window.
This will be further reduced to zero days from February 1, 2026, when restrictions will be applied immediately following a positive or inconclusive result, Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) confirmed.
Restrictions on herds with animals of “unknown status” will be introduced from June 1, 2025 and will initially target herds with larger numbers of unknown status animals.
DAERA confirmed that herd keepers will be advised in advance if these restrictions will be warranted among their herd.
BVD
The department advised that restrictions can be avoided if herd keepers ensure all animals within their herd have a valid BVD test result.
Minister Muir said: “I am very pleased that, since legislation to introduce new BVD measures came into force on February 1 2025, very few herds have been subject to herd restrictions. This is down to the prompt action of herd keepers in dealing with BVD-positive animals.
“As I have emphasised previously, no herds need to be restricted because of a positive animal within the first year of these new BVD measures being applied, if keepers act quickly within the allowed grace periods.
“Reducing the grace period on May 1 from 28 days to 7 days should further speed up the removal of BVD positive or inconclusive animals from herds.
“Therefore, this will reduce the risk of onward spread of this disease to other animals within the herd, as well as reducing the risk to neighbouring herds.”
According to DAERA, BVD is a serious and highly contagious disease of cattle, affecting productivity and compromising animal welfare.
It is mainly spread by “persistently infected” cattle, which are born with the disease after having come into contact with the virus in the womb.
The virus can also spread by other routes, including “transiently infected” cattle, which host the virus for two to three weeks, after which point the animal recovers.
The new legislation, which came into effect on February 1, 2025, will introduce herd movement restrictions on a phased basis and is designed to support wider industry efforts to eradicate the disease among the livestock sector.
“BVD control measures will continue to be introduced in a phased manner, with additional measures introduced from 1 June 2025 that will also target herds containing animals over 30-days-old that haven’t been tested for BVD.
“I therefore urge all herd keepers, not just those who identify positive animals in their herd, to plan ahead to avoid these restrictions by ensuring all their animals are promptly tested for BVD and that steps are taken to reduce the risk of the virus entering their herds,” Muir added.
