Bluetongue vaccination simplification

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has made some practical changes regarding the sourcing of the bluetongue virus ( BTV 3) vaccine.. The revised approach requires veterinary practitioners to notify the DAFM of the herd numbers to be added to their vaccine licence, but they no longer need to wait for DAFM’s confirmation before supplying the vaccine to farmers.

A cost concern of farmers having to purchase a 50ml bottle of vaccine when they only need a small number of doses has also been addressed. Now, vets can prescribe in animal doses and prescribe for multiple farms from the same bottle to facilitate this, effectively allowing farmers share bottles of vaccine. The changes have been welcomed by Animal Health Ireland (AHI) health chair, David Hall: “These changes are a clear step in the right direction. Farmers and vets need a system that allows vaccines to get onto farms quickly without being tied up in excessive administration.” At time of writing, there were 1.15 million doses of vaccine in the country, with 600,000 of them secured by farmers.

David added: “Farmers must remain vigilant for signs of the disease and continue to report any concerns to their vet or local department and continue to submit samples of stillborn calves and lambs to the regional veterinary laboratories.