VETERINARY IRELAND SUBMISSION TO THE 2020 STRATEGY
COMMITTEE
Introduction
Established in 2001, with a pedigree back to 1888, the role of Veterinary Ireland is to represent veterinary surgeons and to support the veterinary profession in its commitment to improving the health and welfare of animals under its care, protecting public health and serving the changing needs of its clients and the community through effective and innovative leadership.
Veterinary Ireland believes that herd health planning at farm level is a key mechanism in maintaining the sustainability of livestock production, with direct positive knock-on effects for animal welfare and public health. Proactive herd health planning also has a role to play in tackling climate change.
The supporting papers describe very well the opportunities and challenges for the Irish agrifood industry inherent in changing population demographics and the need to provide a 20% increase in protein by 2020 to feed our world. In order to partake and contribute to an emerging smart Irish economy the agrifood industry certainly needs to add value to its farm raw material.
Adding value to livestock produce.
Food value is supported by four pillars. Firstly, food must be produced in compliance with relevant food safety legislation. Secondly, the product itself must meet relevant quality requirements, for example somatic cell count limits for milk. Additionally, the environment must be protected in the production of food. Finally, as the modern consumer becomes ever more discerning and sophisticated the animals’ health and welfare status plays greater role in the perception of product quality. The challenge for
Ireland is not only to achieve basic farm and food legislative compliance but to realise that the definition of quality has changed and broadened to embrace enhanced and measurable animal welfare and animal health parameters. We need to differentiate ourselves from farm output intensively managed with low labour costs. Our exports will be challenged to compete and flourish on word market price levels.

What is herd health planning ?
Herd health planning involves adopting a proactive approach to maintaining high standards of animal health and welfare, while at the same time optimizing productivity.
This approach monitors performance, identifies areas where performance is below par, puts in place strategies to address deficiencies and reviews the impact of these changes on performance criteria.
Areas typically addressed in herd health plans include
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Fertility
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Milk quality and mastitis
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Lameness
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Infectious and parasitic disease
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Nutrition
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Calves and youngstock health
Disease is not always inevitable. Herd health planning identifies risks to animal health, prioritises these risks and puts in place strategies to reduce and/or eliminate risks, thereby reducing the chance of disease occurring. Such an approach relies more on improved husbandry and management rather than on medicines to promote better animal health.
Herd health planning has many of the characteristics of good manufacturing practice which are encouraged in industry.
Herd health planning and animal welfare
A proactive approach to herd health will reduce the prevalence of disease in the national herd. Anything which reduces the prevalence of disease has obvious beneficial effects for animal welfare. In addition, by addressing production diseases such as mastitis, infertility and lameness there will be a reduced level of culling, which in turn reflects improved animal welfare.
Herd health planning and public health
Healthy livestock are required to produce healthy food. A reduction in the incidence of disease on farm will result in reduced and more prudent usage of veterinary medicines.
This approach will reduce the risk of medicinal residues entering the food chain and the

risk of antimicrobial resistance developing in the general population. Having a herd health plan will aid in protecting public health inside the farm gate by documenting and putting in place a proactive programme for maximising public as well as animal health on that farm.
As veterinary surgeons working in the food chain both pre and post farmgate we are aware of the necessity to achieve legislative compliance along every step of the food chain in matters pertaining to food quality and safety (via the Hygiene Package and integrated HACCP and GMP food safety systems). Indeed our international markets in
Europe, China and Asia are increasingly inquisitive about farm and agri-industry procedures and standards. We must prevent zoonoses where possible and address public health issues especially pre-farm gate.
Increased efficiencies at farm level
Disease is costly for farmers. For demonstration and brevity purposes we have used mastitis as an example of the cost of disease. Disease costs are made up of direct and indirect costs. Direct costs comprise such as medicines purchased, milk discarded, processor penalties and reduced yield (total volume and % protein). Esslemont and
Kossaibati, (2002) estimated the direct cost of one ‘mild’ mastitis case to be €126 and that for a ‘more severe’ case to be €408. Indirect costs of mastitis, which are less tangible, include higher culling rates (i.e. increased heifer replacement costs), higher cow mortality figures and extended calving intervals. These add €100 and €247 to the direct costs of ‘mild’ and ‘severe’ cases respectively. Yalcin et al. (1999) estimated that there was a potential saving of Sterling £34.50 per cow per year through the implementation of basic mastitis control programmes in Scottish dairy herds where bulk milk somatic cell count levels were approaching the permitted 400,000 cells per ml limit. Hillerton et al.
(1995) found that where mastitis control strategies were implemented as part of a herd health plan, even in the absence of any specific targeted culling for mastitis there were
45% fewer cows and 54% fewer udder quarters infected in the herd.
Farmers may be tempted to cut expenditure on animal health during periods of low prices for agri-produce such as we are now experiencing. However, it is in such times that the

return on investment is greatest. Decreasing the incidence of disease will reduce costs at farm level and thereby increase efficiency.
Increased international competitiveness
Ireland is a net exporter of livestock produce. For every Irish beef carcass consumed in
Ireland, nine are exported. Over 80% of Irish dairy produce is exported. Irish farming clearly has to compete on international markets. Ireland can use the high standards of health and welfare on our farms to differentiate our produce from low cost competitors.
Much of the current marketing strategy involves promoting the clean green wholesomeness of the Ireland - the food island. We feel that the implementation of herd health planning at farm level would provide real documentary evidence to substantiate high standards of health and welfare on Irish farms, which would increase the marketability of Irish livestock produce.
An All – Island approach to animal health .
An island confers protection on national herds by virtue of its natural geographical boundaries. Countries like New Zealand have used this to their advantage to protect the health of their national herds and flock from disease incursions from other countries. We therefore suggest that the continuing cooperation between the Depts of Agriculture north and south of the border be continued and strengthened to safeguard the health of livestock on the whole island. This high health status can be used to protect and promote the agrifood industry. We advocate an All Island brand, such as is already the case in the tourism sector.
Climate change and environmental sustainability
Agriculture is regarded as a major contributor to global warming. Ruminants are significant producers of methane which is regarded as a very potent green house gas (it is
23 times more potent than carbon dioxide from a global warming perspective). Farmed livestock produce 18% of greenhouse gas emissions (Anon, 2006). It is likely that pressure will be applied on livestock farms to reduce their emissions. Increasing productivity per animal, increasing fertility, altering diets and vaccination against

methane producing gut flora are potential means to reduce methane production from ruminants. Increasing productivity in effect makes animals more efficient in converting feed into product. Disease prevents animals reaching their genetic potential. The aim should be to produce more kgs of beef per suckler cow and litres of milk per dairy cow over her productive life. There is a need for improved herd health to reduce culling for infertility, lameness and mastitis. By improving health and welfare the current levels of wastage could be reduced. With climate change an important issue being considered in discussions on changes to the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), herd health programmes have a significant role to play in future years.
Knowledge transfer in the context of improving animal health skills at farm level
There is a disconnect between the knowledge already garnered and the implementation of best practice in animal health at farm level. We believe it is more important to apply the knowledge already known than to embark on novel research. Herd health planning provides an opportunity to improve animal health capacity among participating farmers.
Risk management and insurance
Risk management and insurance are mentioned in the discussion documents. If these are to be established, infrastructure must be put in place to encourage herds to reduce their exposure to disease. Herd health planning provides one avenue for herds to reduce their risk. Furthermore, there is a public good in tackling a number of endemic diseases, such as BVD, to reduce the prevalence of the disease within the country and thereby reduce the risk to individual farmers. Disease risk management measures that reduce levels of and exposure to disease may form part of the reformed Single Farm Payment regime.
Concluding remarks
Veterinary Surgeons are keen to continue participation, both pre and post farm-gate as facilitators and leaders in partnership with others to enhance the integrity, safety and marketability of produce from the Irish agrifood industry . We believe that actions to improve herd health have a significant contribution to make to the sustainability and competitiveness of Irish livestock production now and into the future. Veterinary

surgeons are the only profession that have the skills and training to implement meaningful herd health planning at farm level. As well as private goods for individual farmers, there are public goods including improved animal welfare, improved public health and reduced effect on climate change. We urge the 2020 strategy committee to carefully consider the issues raised in our submission. We ask the committee to recommend the implementation of herd health plans at farm level for the benefit of the livestock industry as a whole.
References
Anon. (2006) Livestock impacts on the environment. FAO website accessed on March
29 th
2010. http://www.fao.org/ag/magazine/0612sp1.htm
Esslemont R.J. and Kossaibati M.A. (2002). Mastitis: How do we get out of the dark ages. The Veterinary Journal 164, 85-86
Hillerton J.E., Bramley A.J., Staker R.T. and McKinnon C.H. (1995) Patterns of intramammary infection and clinical mastitis over a 5 year period in a closely monitored herd applying mastitis control measures. Journal of Dairy Research 62, 39-52
Yalcin C., Stott A.W., Logue D.N., and Gunn J. (1999) The economic impact of mastitis control procedures used in Scottish dairy herds with high bulk tank somatic cell counts.
Preventive Veterinary Medicine 41, 135-149.