Animal Health Ireland has appointed Lawrence Gavey as its new Johne’s disease programme manager, and Dr Carla Correia Gomes as the new Pig HealthCheck programme manager. Both have recently taken up their new positions with AHI.

Mastitis / SCC Control

Animal Health Ireland warns liver fluke and rumen fluke will be an important issue this autumn and winter because of the very wet summer and widespread flooding.

One of the most important aids to controlling mastitis/SCC is the information from herd milk recording, and other information from ICBF.

Ireland still has a problem with high SCC milk, but it is only in recent years that it is being taken seriously by all concerned with the dairy industry.

I attended an excellent beef technical seminar and tour last week in Co Laois, run by the Agricultural Science Association.

A NATIONAL programme of eradication of bovine viral diarrhoea in Irish cattle is likely to become compulsory by 2013, according to Animal Health Ireland (AHI).

A BVD implementation group has been created with members drawn from Veterinary Ireland, IFA, ICMSA, ICOS, pedigree cattle breed societies, the Department of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, and ICBF.

CONTRARY to traditional wisdom, the latest advice from AHI is that scouring calves should be fed five to six litres of milk per day in three feeds, in addition to electrolytes.

ONLY 48% of heifer calves calved as heifers into the dairy herd at two years of age in recent years, and this highlights the problems of calf mortality and poor calf health on Irish farms, according to the Animal Health Ireland (AHI) organisation.

DAIRY farmers are partnering with vets, advisers, dairy technicians and co-op personnel on a milk quality initiative called CellCheck, which will control mastitis and should boost future profits.

VISITORS to the National Dairy Show can get up to date with efforts by the food industry and farmers to tackle the ever-present threat of animal diseases.

THE European Union licensing system for veterinary medicines is time-consuming, inefficient and costly and needs to be completely overhauled, according to the representative body for the European animal health industry.

TWO mid-west visitor attractions yesterday emerged triumphant in an international tourism honours list.