The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is seeking specialist training for its on-farm animal health and biosecurity advisory service.

The department is currently inviting tenders for certain services for the Targeted Advisory Service on Animal Health.

A single service provider is being sought to train advisers (veterinarians) to deliver animal health and biosecurity advice to farmers.

They will also be required to develop a on-farm advice scheme on specific animal health biosecurity subjects.

DAFM

According to the tender documents, the training course should be "practical, challenging and stimulating" and should cover specialist training for the advisers in the following subjects:

Biosecurity risk assessment (Bioscore) for dairy, beef, and sheep farms;
Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD);
Johne’s disease (JD);
Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis (IBR);
Somatic cell counts (SCC);
Bovine tuberculosis (TB) biosecurity and risk reduction advice;
Animal health and welfare and public health issues in the pig and poultry sectors, including salmonellosis and campylobacter infections;
Matters related to the dairy, beef, and sheep farms to reduce the use of antimicrobials;
Parasite control strategy for sheep, dairy, beef, suckler, and equine farms, strategies to reduce the use of antiparasitics, and promote best practice in parasite control.

The department said current indications are that approximately 1,000 vets may be required to be trained over the term of the contract in the principal bovine subjects.

It is anticipated that significantly lower numbers of advisors will be required to be trained in the pig and poultry sector.

The successful tenderer will be required to ensure that training will only be provided to qualified vets and who are registered with the Veterinary Council of Ireland (VCI).

"At the end of the training, participants should be equipped to provide advice to farmers on the relevant diseases in a manner that is efficient, informative and beneficial to the farmers, taking account of any risks identified and tools to minimise such risks," the department said.

Advisers

DAFM noted that it is not the intention of the scheme to interfere with the existing farmer/veterinary practitioner relationship.

Farmers, when applying for the advice under the scheme, will be asked to nominate a professional veterinarian to provide the advice to them.

Only vets trained by the successful tenderer will be eligible to provide the advice.

The department estimated that in the region of up to 26,000 farm advisory visits per annum may be required to be undertaken.

DAFM said it is intended that the scheme will be fully operable in or around the start of May.

The training contract, worth almost €1.1 million excluding VAT, is expected to remain in place until December 31, 2028.

The closing date for the submission of tenders is 3:00p.m on April 1, 2026.