The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is encouraging farmers to consider using bulls that are more resistant to bovine tuberculosis (bTB) as part of their breeding plans.
In a text recently sent to farmers’ phones, the department said that bulls with a breeding value of less than 8% should be used where TB is a concern.
“The purpose of this SMS is to inform farmers to use breeding as one of the measures to reduce the risk of bTB,” a DAFM spokesperson told Agriland.
“The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) incorporates genetic resistance to TB into [its] breeding indices.
“When selecting bulls for breeding, farmers should seek to choose ones that are genetically more resistant to bTB,” the text added.
Bulls
The ICBF has said that “farmers can breed cattle that are less likely to become TB reactors”.
Within the economic breeding index (EBI), farmers can select sires with higher resistance to bovine TB – which may a consideration for herds which are continually impacted by breakdowns.
However, ICBF noted that high EBI does “not guarantee favourable genetic resistance to TB”, as can be seen in the example below:
It added that farmers should select high EBI bulls with a lower TB PTA to improve genetic resistance in their herd.
“To improve TB resistance, herds should aim to use bulls with a breeding value of less than 8%. For more rapid improvement, use bulls less than 6.5,” ICBF advised.
According to figures from the department, there was an increase in the number of bTB reactors in 2023.
In the 12-month period from January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023, 28,868 TB test reactions were detected in cattle, compared to 23,337 in the same 12-month period of 2022.
The herd incidence rate as of December 31 last was 4.89%, which is the highest herd incidence rate since before 2010.
Last year, €74.3 million was spent on the TB Eradication Programme, which was an increase of 29% on the previous year (€57.4 million).