Ex-States vet: ‘Semen imports not necessary’

Tuesday 22nd April 2008, 12:00AM BST.

A FORMER States vet thinks that if Jersey farmers ‘pitch in together’ to improve Jersey cows then they will not need bull semen imports.

Nicholas Blampied, the current president of the Animals Shelter and former States vet in the 1960s, said that he believes the Island herd remains free from disease because it is currently closed to outside bull semen.

‘The semen that would be imported is tested for known diseases, but there could be a danger of importing an unknown disease,’ he said. ‘It is not a mega danger, but it is there.’

He quotes a report from 1983 when South African genetics expert Jim Allan found that it was better for Jersey to remain a closed herd.

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