No changes to control measures for bluetongue

A CALL to ban cargoes of certain products from areas affected by bluetongue, the debilitating livestock infection, was rejected yesterday by Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan.

She said the management committee of her department’s national disease control centre had looked at the issue of the risk associated with the importation of hay and straw.

“The risk associated is very remote and therefore a ban at this time would be disproportionate to what we are dealing with,” she said.