Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, introduced tighter controls on animal movement yesterday in a bid to help block the spread of the bluetongue virus to Scotland.
As of yesterday, producers buying livestock from bluetongue-restricted zones must notify the Scottish Government within three days of the animals' arrival.
That move was prompted by the virus being detected on December 29, 2007, in an animal imported from Lower Saxony in Germany to a farm near Kirkcudbright in Dumfries and Galloway.
Referring to that incident, Lochhead said: "Scotland was fortunate this time that it remains free of bluetongue. However, producers can reduce the risk of bringing bluetongue to Scotland by not buying animals from high-risk areas.
"After this incident, I wrote to the UK Government demanding that strong support was given to an EU-wide review of bluetongue trade rules. As a result, the European Commission have charged all member states to ensure appropriate controls are in place.
"Should bluetongue get into Scotland it could potentially have a devastating effect on sheep and beef farming and on rural economies as a whole."
While a post-movement test is a requirement for any animals imported into Scotland from bluetongue zones on the Continent, no such requirement exists for animals coming into Scotland from bluetongue zones within the UK.
Nigel Miller, NFU Scotland vice-president and also a qualified vet, said: "Today's move is very welcome and it is reassuring to know that there will be rigorous monitoring to ensure that all animals entering Scotland from any restricted zone are properly tested before leaving the bluetongue zone in England.
"However, NFU Scotland still has concerns that, as we move nearer to the end of the vector-free period and the temperatures start to rise, this will not be enough. We have, therefore, called for post-movement testing of animals coming from restricted zones in England to be put in place to ensure that we have further safeguards to help ensure that Scotland can remain bluetongue free."
Sale of setaside and SFP entitlements ABERDEEN & Northern Marts' 2008 auctions of single farm payment entitlements got off to a great start at Thainstone, Inverurie, yesterday.
A total of 1356.23 hectare units of standard entitlements was forward, selling to £800 per unit for 20 units valued at 419.81. Also on offer were 31.39 hectares units of setaside entitlements that achieved a top price of £590 per unit for 15.86 units valued at 342.21.
Top multiplier for setaside entitlements was 2.47, while top multiplier for standard entitlements was 3.19.
The next sale will be held on Friday, February 1, at 2pm.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article