The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) advised the new minister to review the current bovine tuberculosis (TB) strategy "as a matter of urgency".

In a briefing for the minister setting out the current priorities and issues for the agricultural sector, DAFM stated that the current TB control measures are "inadequate".

"The incidence of TB has increased across the main dairy regions in the country despite the full implementation of the current control programme.

"A new minister will need to review the current programme as a matter of urgency and agree additional measures, to arrest the spread of the disease," the briefing states.

The document has since been presented to the new Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon.

As of November 17, 5,996 herds have suffered a TB breakdown in the last twelve months incomparison to 4,979 herds in the same period last year.

An analysis of the data suggests the reasons underpinning current levels of TB incidence are the expansion of the dairy herd and the resulting increased levels of intensive cattle farming and the increased movement of cattle, according to DAFM.

There has also been a substantial increase in the number of reactors with 40,044 being disclosed in the last twelve months in comparison to 27,505 in the previous twelve months, an increase of 12,539 or almost 46%.

In addition, almost 9.9 million tests were carried out at November 17, 2024 compared to around 9.7 million tests in the same period in 2023.

The briefing to the minister states that the advice on how to reduce TB risk in a herd has remained "generally consistent over many years", and that the Bovine TB Eradication Strategy 2021-2030 is "not set in stone".

It states that "additional steps to build on the current strategy will be needed" by the new minister to "make substantial further progress" on the disease.