Claims made by Prof. Simon Moore that cattle from Irish farms that meet the EU Trade Directive criteria for TB are “not safe to trade” have been slammed by a farm lobby group.
The Irish Farmers’ Association’s (IFA’s) animal health chairman, Pat Farrell, has reacted angrily to the recent comments made before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
Farrell said: “Irish farmers – at enormous cost – meet the very strict criteria laid down in trade directives based on tests approved to access our vital export markets.
It is irresponsible and potentially very damaging for Irish farmers and the agri-sector to question the effectiveness of these controls.
The IFA chairman said the responsibility rests with the Department of Agriculture to ensure all sources of the disease are removed from surrounding TB breakdown farms during the restriction period, allowing these farms to return to unhindered market access when restriction is lifted.
“As pointed out by Prof. Moore, the ongoing risks in these herds are issues outside the control of farmers and include wildlife and residual infection.”
Farrell said the IFA have put detailed proposals to the Department of Agriculture which reduces these risks and would allow animals from these herds trade as normal following de-restriction.
The animal health chairman stressed that farmers are “already at breaking point” with the costs and impact of controls on their farms with the TB programme and added that they will not accept any additional costs or controls until the deficiencies in the current compensation schemes are fully addressed.
Concluding, Farrell said: “Farmers are willing to embrace scientifically-proven controls that are practical to implement and that will contribute to the eradication of TB, provided there is a full compensation package to offset the enormous impact of TB on our farms.”