From Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
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Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, today announced the extension of the Parasite Control Strategy for cattle and sheep farmers within the existing Targeted Advisory Service for Animal Health (TASAH) to support farmers in their response to the anti-parasitic challenge.
Minister McConalogue stated:
"Anti-parasitic resistance is a major challenge to the health of animals in the country and can impact on the profitability of farms. There has been a large uptake of the Parasite Control Strategy this year and I expect that this will continue into 2023.
"The TASAH programme specifically focuses on parasite controls on farms. The development of a structured parasite control plan is critical to addressing the increasing challenge of anti-parasitic resistance.
"This measure permits farmers engage a trained veterinary practitioner, at no cost to the farmer, to provide advice on parasite control measures in their herd / flock. This free TASAH programme will be managed by Animal Health Ireland (AHI)."
The TASAH funding provides for a farm visit and veterinary consultation, free of charge to the farmer, to advise on parasite control by a trained veterinary practitioner, to include faecal egg sampling and interpretation.
Minister McConalogue said:
"I encourage all cattle and sheep farmers to register with the portal on AHI’s website to get the best practice advice on parasitic control for their holdings. Reducing the development of anti-parasitic resistance is crucial to support farm profitability. The measure will assist in identifying non effective treatments, reducing the frequency of treatments where necessary, and increase the capacity for monitoring and testing as part of a health plan. This will be a farmer-friendly initiative that will help drive improvements at animal health level as well as farm profitability."
Farmers will receive individual farm specific parasite control recommendations from the veterinarian visit.
David Graham, CEO of Animal Health Ireland stated:
"AHI is delighted to continue working with DAFM in the delivery of this activity in 2023 supporting farmers in developing effective parasite control plans for their herds and flocks which can contribute to the economic and environmental sustainability of their enterprises."
Farmers can register online from today at https://ahiportal.powerappsportals.com/PCFR/ or speak to their respective Private Veterinarian Practitioner.
The programme will end on 31 October 2023.
More information is available on the AHI website at Parasite Control TASAH Consult (Cattle & Sheep) - Animal Health Ireland.