The national Dairy BJD Assurance Score is a simple tool to help dairy or beef producers gauge the risk of bringing BJD into their herd when buying cattle.

Cattle buyers can compare the score (from 1 to 10) of dairy herds and buy only from those with the same or a higher score than their own.

Introducing cattle of a lower score into a herd will lower the score of that herd.

For beef producers buying dairy cattle, the message is buy only cattle with a Score of 7 or above.

The system is available now and is based on a simple self assessment.

A herd’s score will be between 0 and 10, depending on the herd’s BJD prevalence, BJD history and calf rearing practices. The higher the BJD Assurance Score the lower the risk.

All infected and suspect herds start off with a score of 1.

Infected herds that are undertaking approved test and control programs have scores from 2 (for a herd with a high prevalence of infection) up to 6 (for a herd that has had a series of negative tests).

Cattle MAP herds have the highest Scores of 8, 9 or 10 because they have been through a process of testing, audits and biosecurity measures to reduce the risk of BJD being in their herd.

Non-assessed dairy herds in NSW will have an initial score of 3.

Herds that do not implement an auditable calf-rearing system or test the herd before July 2008 will drop to a score of 0.

Cattle Council of Australia has a $90,000 available until Dec 2007 to subsidise dairy farmers in NSW who wish to Check Test (50 blood samples) their herd for BJD.