Progress in TB scheme but FVO team finds faults

TB reactor numbers and herd incidence have continued to fall in 2011, according to Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney.

Herd incidence fell from 7.53% in 2000 to 4.65% last year, and the 20,211 reactors in 2010 was the lowest recorded since the commencement of the programme in the 1950s.

However, the Department of Agriculture has committed to review, amend, or update a number of eradication procedures, following recommendations made by an EU Food and Veterinary Office team which was in Ireland last November to evaluate bovine TB controls.