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Restocking will be a post-FMD task facing many livestock
farmers, so VEGA takes a look at experiences at Moorepark
research centre farm in Ireland, which had to “repopulate”
after culling due to confirmation of a BSE-positive cow in
its dairy-herd.
The dairy-farm was restocked with 297 pregnant heifers and
105 weaner-heifers registered with the Irish Holstein Friesian
Society, according to a report in the Irish Veterinary Journal(2001,
54, 70 to 75), from which we derive the following information.
Prepurchase tests for tuberculosis (TB), brucellosis, Mycoplasma
bovis (bacterial infections), and Johne’s disease were
performed. The antibody status to bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD)
virus and infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) was also
determined in the animal to be purchased. On arrival on the
farm all the animals were treated with an anthelmintic (a
drug for worming) and injected with streptomycin/dihydrostreptomycin,
vaccinated for leptospirosis and IBR, and were kept in separate
groups according to source.
NEW KINE IN OLD BOTHERS
All did not go well in this exemplary exercise. Of 3 animals
that aborted, 2 tested negative for brucellosis and one was
slaughtered as a precaution. The fetuses did not provide a
definitive diagnosis. Six cows were culled postpartum, 3 because
they had fractured limbs; one had tarsitis (blepharitis, or
inflammation of the eyelid), and abortion (one). Of 32 prenatal
deaths, 30 were stillborn calves, 4 due to thyroid hyperplasia
(probably manifesting dietary deficiency of iodine), one to
anoxia (or hypoxia, a deprivation of oxygen to the tissues),
one with amniotic fluid in the bronchi (drowning), one with
neosporosis (a bacterial infection), and one with a high nitrite
concentration.
The costs of the tests were thought to be so high as to be
neither practical nor economical for an individual farmer;
nevertheless, an intending purchaser of such animals is advised
to insist on tests for tuberculosis and brucellosis, as well
as, before purchase, for mycoplasma, BVD, and Johne’s
disease. Herd health status was maintained for the 3 years
after this complex and costly biosecurity exercise. (Johne’s
disease in cattle is related to Crohn’s in people, and
transfer of a causative bacterium, Mycobacteria avium paratuberculosis,
has been mooted as an associated factor. This embarrassment
for the dairy-industry is receiving attention from the Food
Standards Agency).
This experience of restocking by experts indicates why British
farmers plead for ever more subsidies and government help
when they decide to continue livestock farming and begin on
the hazardous path to repopulation.
RESTOCKING THE EUROMARKET
Brussels is rising to the occasion with new systems of subsidy
to help rebuild sheep flocks (The Grocer, 05 January 2002).
A simplified scheme provides farmers with a flat rate of annual
payment for each ewe in place of former handouts that varied
according to market prices. It “should encourage output
growth by increasing financial predictability and security”.
British producers can expect about £13 a head (the
amounts are actually awarded in euros) for their ewe flocks
each year, augmented by a further £4 to those farming
in the so-called less favoured areas (LFAs). This is an implied
promise of a boost to the farmers’ confidence, “leading
to rapid rebuilding of breeding flocks and sharply increasing
availability of lambs in 2003, if not this year.” The
payments will be made even if the farmers do not bother breeding
from the ewes. The handouts are part of a quota system: “money
is paid with the intention of keeping farming units intact,
but specifically not as an open-ended commitment to supporting
output growth”.
However, even before the FMD crisis erupted farmers were
complaining that these were EU budget cuts that “may
cost sheep farmers’ fortune”, with “millions
of pounds wiped off their income because of cuts forced on
the sheep meat budget by the BSE crisis, sheep industry leaders
warn” (Farmers Weekly, 23 February 2001). The new rates
of subsidy, actually €21 and €7, respectively, don’t
satisfy the National Sheep Association, which seeks a “more
realistic” basic rate of €27 to €28. Farm ministers
from the leading EU sheep-rearing countries (which are few,
comprising the UK, Spain, France, and Ireland) were even looking
for a basic subsidy of €30 to €33 per ewe. In VEGA’s
view this is an absurd industry seriously overdue for swingeing
reforms and reduction.
Horses for Courses
In France consumers have turned away from beef in the wake
of the BSE and FMD crises. (By the end of this year the rising
tide of BSE in France and the decline in the UK will see France
recording more cases of BSE than the UK). The consumers have
turned to horsemeat instead: demand was up by 31% in the first
quarter of 2001, while beef sales fell by 22%. However, horsemeat
remains a niche market, sales averaging at about 1kg per person
per year (Farmers Weekly, 11 May 2001).
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