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Incentives For Proving Gippsland Is TSE Free

Australia’s livestock export industry (animals and animal products) is a major source of income that is reliant on Australia continuing to prove its animals are free from transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs).

By Department of Primary Industries - 10th December 2009 - Back to News

Incentives are now available for sheep and cattle farmers in the Gippsland area who provide eligible stock for examination for TSE as part of a national surveillance program.

TSEs are a group of fatal degenerative diseases of the nervous system affecting both humans and animals.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or ‘mad cow’ in cattle and scrapie in sheep are members of this group of diseases.

Australia has implemented a number of strategies to monitor the occurrence of TSE disease in our cattle and sheep population.

The National Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Surveillance Program (NTSESP) is one of these and is specifically aimed at demonstrating Australia’s on-going freedom from BSE and scrapie.

The NTSESP involves detailed examination of several hundred cattle and sheep nationwide annually. Individual animals identified as eligible candidates for inclusion in the program must meet several specific criteria:

· Cattle must be at least 30 months of age and no more than nine years of age.

· Sheep must be at least 18 months of age or older.

Both cattle and sheep must be displaying progressive clinical neurological signs (for example circling, blindness or abnormal behaviour) and a maximum of two animals per property is permitted. The animal must be alive at presentation to Department of Primary Industries’ (DPI) staff. A producer incentive of $300 for cattle and $50 for sheep is available.

Producers can be involved in the program by reporting their own animals that fit these criteria to their local veterinarian or by contacting their nearest DPI Animal Health officer at DPI Ellinbank on (03) 5624 2222, DPI Maffra (03) 5147 0800, DPI Bairnsdale on (03) 5152 0400 or DPI Leongatha on (03) 5662 9900.


Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com



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