Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon is expected to launch a new bovine tuberculosis (TB) action plan later today (Tuesday, September 9).

Agriland understands that the plan contains five main measures under which there are various different actions.

It is believed that the new plan will seek to help herds to remain free of the disease, detect infection as early as possible and avoid further cases where there is a breakdown.

The action plan is expected to have a focus on reducing the impact of high-risk animals in spreading the disease, along with wildlife measures and improving on-farm biosecurity.

Agriland understands that the new plan will include pre-movement testing for higher risk animals in a bid to achieve earlier detection of bovine TB.

The plan is also expected to encourage farmers to favour one-to-one contract rearing arrangements.

In line with previous proposals from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), information on animal risk category is expected to be provided at the point of sale.

When it comes to wildlife, the plan is expected to outline that badgers will only be vaccinated against bovine TB if the animal has tested negative for the disease. Any badgers that test positive for TB will be culled.

It is believed the department will increase its wildlife staff, while a wildlife response model will be developed in areas with high TB incidence rates.

The department is expected to introduce mandatory Gamma Interferon (GIF) or blood testing in large breakdowns of breeding herds to reduce residual infection.

Under the plan, it is also believed there will be a restriction on the sale of cows that were part of the exposed cohort at the time of breakdown in breeding herds with 80 cows or more where 5% of the exposed cohort test positive or 10 reactors.

Cows could still be sold direct to a controlled finishing unit (CFU) or direct to slaughter in this period.

It is expected that the movement of unweaned dairy calves from TB restricted farms would be facilitated.

The plan is understood to include a breeding strategy to build resistance to TB in the national cattle herd, while farmers affected by a TB outbreak will be provided with free veterinary advice.

Last year, over 6,000 farms were affected by a bovine TB outbreak. Herd incidence for the devastating disease has increased to 6.04% in 2024, up from 4.31% in 2022.

The cost of running the national bovine TB programme stood at over €100 million in 2024.

Farmers also paid an additional €8 million in disease levies as well as paying for their annual bTB test.

The loss of milk revenues to the dairy industry was estimated to be around 145 million litres last year.

This resulted in a loss at farm gate prices alone of about €70 million, and around €110 million lost in export revenue.

In May, DAFM outlined around 30 draft proposals to tackle the rising incidence of the disease at an emergency meeting of industry stakeholders, including farm organisations.

Minister Heydon received approval from his Cabinet colleagues in July to address the escalating levels of bovine TB in the country.

At that time, the minister said that any changes to the TB programme will support and enable farm families who are currently dealing with the stress of a TB outbreak to navigate a way out of TB restriction and protect those herds currently free from TB from the stress of an outbreak.