Large crowds of farmers gathered at the Errigal Country House Hotel in Cootehill, Co. Cavan, on Wednesday, November 6, for the meeting on the escalation in bovine tuberculosis (bovine TB) breakdowns in the region.
The meeting was hosted by the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) and was chaired by the IFA Ulster/North Leinster regional chair Frank Brady.
With the general election fast approaching, there was also a number of candidates in attendance also.
The three guest speakers were:
- Deputy chief veterinary officer at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) Michael Sheahan;
- Tomas Burke, IFA livestock committee senior policy executive;
- T.J. Maher, IFA animal health chair.
The guest speakers outlined the facts and figures on bovine TB in Ireland and highlighted that many of the trends are going in the wrong direction.
DAFM’s Michael Sheahan acknowledged that TB is transmitted from badger to badger and from badger to cattle but said “by a long shot the biggest transmission is from cattle to cattle” by a factor of 17.
“That’s not to say that badger to cattle [transmission] is not important and it is important but cattle to cattle [transmission ] is significantly more important,” he added.
The DAFM speaker outlined two things farmers can do to “dramatically reduce the risk of getting TB” in their herds.
He said: “The most important thing you can do, and this is something that won’t cost you anything, you can decide that from now on you’re only going to buy cattle from herds that have had no TB for 10 years. There’s 50,000 of those herds out there. The single most important thing you can do to reduce your risk of getting TB, this is it.”
He also advised farmers to fence off badger sets on their farm to avoid cattle getting up close to the sets.
The deputy chief veterinary officer warned that “hard decisions will have to be made and until now, the farm organisations and ourselves do not agree on what those hard decisions are”.
“If we don’t make those hard decisions around risk-based trading, we are not going to eradicate TB. It’s never been done anywhere else, it wont be done in Ireland.
“You can kill as many badgers as you like but if we don’t bring some restrictions in relation to trading from herds that are at high risk from TB, we are not going to eradicate TB and we’re fooling ourselves if we think we are,” he said.
IFA stance on bovine TB
The IFA representation in attendance on the night questioned the effectiveness of the badger vaccination programme.
Tomas Burke pointed to the ineffectiveness of the badger vaccination programme in the north Kilkenny and surrounding areas and said the people who appraised the vaccination programme also “ran the studies that told us badger disturbance because of tree felling and roadworks had no impact on TB levels”.
He added that “last Tuesday, we were told that a study carried out by two students from UCD showed exactly what we all know on the ground”.
TJ Maher argued that “we must go for badger density reduction”.
He said that animals that are traded the most such as beef cattle have the lowest rates of TB and the animals that are traded the least such as breeding suckler and dairy cows have the highest rates of bovine TB.
He argued that more strict rules on risk-based trading “is based on a false premise”.
Tomas Burke touched on some common ground with DAFM and the IFA in relation to bovine TB and said:
“Looking at scenarios where there may be higher-risk animals identified within farms that may be still infected is certainly a consideration, we’re prepared to discuss on the key condition that any impact that has on a farmers’ income or ability to farm is fully compensated.”