Reacting to the announcement on brucellosis testing programme for 2012 by the Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney, IFA Animal Health Chairman John Waters acknowledged the decision by the Minister to reduce the level of annual round testing for dairy farmers.

The decision to test only 20% of dairy herds in the coming year is worth €1.2m in savings to farmers.

John Waters said, “Having attained brucellosis-free status in 2009, it is disappointing that the testing regime has not been relaxed further. In particular, the pre-movement test for heifers should have been increased from 18 months to 24 months. This would have delivered significant savings to farmers and aligned all of the testing age requirements under the Brucellosis programme.”