There are several important updates to share with you around the topic of BVD
and the national scheme in Wales:
Welsh Government amendments to BVD legislation
The Welsh Government have made amendments to the Bovine Viral Diarrhoea
(Wales) 2024, which came into force on 8 May 2025. These changes form part of
the national effort to eradicate BVD from Wales.
Three amendments have been made:
- The next phase of the legislation will now come into force on 1 July 2026.
PLEASE NOTE:
THERE IS STILL THE LEGAL REQUIREMENT FOR ALL CATTLE
HOLDINGS TO CARRY OUT AN ANNUAL SCREEN BY THE 1 JULY
2025 AND EVERY YEAR THEREAFTER.
With this change of date for the next phase, we would urge vets to continue to
influence farmers to adopt the behavioral changes required to reduce the amount
of circulating virus. For example, pre-movement testing, isolation and post movement testing of unknown status animals, and PI hunts where there is a
likelihood of there being a PI present on farm. - Approval of ‘Approved Blood Samplers’ (ABS) to undertake BVD blood
sampling on farm for the purposes of the BVD order has now been confirmed.
This could be a task delegated to ATTs, but in addition it will open it up to new
trained individuals (ABS). They will need to undertake an approved course which
will be available from Improve International, which is expected to be available
from July. - Pre-movement antigen testing window expanded
An amendment has been passed to allow pre-movement antigen testing of
individual cattle from BVD not negative herds to be extended from within 30 days
of movement to within 60 days of movement off farm. (This forms part of
legislation now to be implemented as of 1/7/2026).
BVD Conference Aberystwyth
This conference will be hosted by the Welsh Veterinary Science Centre at
Aberystwyth University on Wednesday June 4th between 10am and 3.30 pm. The
conference has been put together with a primary focus on the practical aspect of
delivery of the BVD legislation in Wales. The format will include contributions
from Scottish veterinary colleagues on their experience in delivering their national
scheme in Scotland, aspects of social science, as well as contributions from the
farming unions, Welsh Government and vets in practice. Round table discussions
and time to catch up with fellow vets should make this a productive day and we
encourage you all to send a veterinary representative, ideally your nominated
BVD vet to attend. As part of the round table discussion element, we would like
you to suggest up to four topics around implementing the BVD scheme that you
would like to discuss. Please send your nominated topics to hwright@wvsc.wales.
A detailed agenda for the day, together with times and site location will be sent
out in due course.
BVD Nominated Vet
BVDCymru recognise that effective communication between the programme and
you as vet practices is essential to a successful BVD eradication program in Wales.
In order to facilitate this, for those who have not already done so, please send in
the name and contact details of your nominated BVD vet to
bvdcymru@colegsirgar.ac.uk. This individual will act as a point of contact and
form an important link between BVDCymru and our field vets who are integral in
guiding farmers and helping industry deliver the legislation.
