IFA calls for better wildlife control in Co Wicklow to cut TB levels
The figures for cases of TB in cattle herds in Wicklow are running at around double the national average. Department of Agriculture figures show that 7.4% of herds in Wicklow have been restricted due to TB infection, the same figure as last year for the county when the national average was 3.9%.
The IFA wants the Department of Agriculture to intervene in wildlife management programmes in Wicklow, notably in relation to badgers and deer, the primary sources of TB in Irish cattle herds. Nationally, the numbers of TB reactors have fallen by over 50% since 2000.
“The progress nationally is directly attributable to the effective implementation of the Wildlife Control Programme, which IFA were instrumental in establishing,” said IFA president Eddie Downey.
“However, the application of this programme in Wicklow by the Department of Agriculture has not been of the standard required.
“The problem is further compounded by the rising deer population, which has been allowed increase to levels that are no longer sustainable within their natural habitat. As a result they are encroaching further each year onto farmland and mixing with cattle. Deer are susceptible to TB and are contributing to the high incidence of the disease in the county.”
The IFA leader said the Department of Agriculture had accrued significant savings in the ERAD budget over the last number of years that the reduced incidence of TB nationally. The IFA want these savings to be used to fund more effective wildlife controls, and to reduce the burden on farmers for some of the costs relating to the spread of TB from wild animals into domestic herds.
In particular, the levels of grant payable in income supplement to farmers who lose large numbers of animals must be increased.
“Fear of a TB outbreak is one of the main causes of stress on family farms,” said Mr Downey. “We have to see the provision of meaningful supports which ensures farmers no longer have to live in the fear of a TB breakdown, or experience the trauma of the financial and emotional stress associated with this disease.”
The Department of Agriculture has issued tenders worth around €2m for the cull of up to 12,000 badgers over the next two years.
However, animal welfare groups continue to challenge the view that culling wildlife delivers real benefits to farming.
Prof Matt Keeing of the University of Warwick argues that wildlife is not the only measure to consider, and halving the transfers of cattle from one farm to another would cut the UK’s rise in TB cases in cows from 10% to 6% annually.
