DAFM

Ireland's Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has obtained permission to import the Arvac vaccine ahead of the 2025 breeding season, the European Federation of Thoroughbred Breeders' Associations (EFTBA) announced on Monday. The manufacturing failure of the Artervac vaccine in 2023 had left Europe's elite stallions vulnerable to an outbreak of EVA, a notifiable disease which can cause infertility, as well as pregnancy loss in mares. The EFTBA and its members, including Ireland, France and Germany, had lobbied the EU for permission to import the alternative vaccine, Arvac,...

Trainer Kieran Cotter was fined €27,500 by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board Referrals Committee and must pay a further €7,500 in legal costs. One of his runners, Slade Runner (Ire) (Slade Power {Ire}), tested positive for cobalt and the IHRB found further misconduct by the trainer following a yard inspection. Slade Runner won a Dundalk handicap in January and returned a cobalt reading higher than the international threshold. After the cobalt positive, there was a joint inspection of Cotter's yard by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine (DAFM) and...