Brucellosis test to cost farmers €1.2m less
The decision will remove a further 400,000 animals from the testing regime, and should save farmers €1.2m per year.
This is additional to changes made since Ireland was declared officially free of brucellosis in July, 2009. The earlier changes removed 2.5m animals from annual testing, reducing testing costs for farmers by about €7.5m per year. The annual round test was confined to cattle over 24 months, and 50% of herds; and the pre-movement test age threshold was increased from 12 to 18 months, except for 24 months in bulls.
