Department of Agriculture: ‘Deer don’t spread much bovine TB’

There is no evidence that deer play a significant role in transmitting TB to cattle in most of the country outside Wicklow, according to the Department of Agriculture.

“Outside Wicklow, there just is not the evidence that deer are playing a role in transmitting to cattle at significant levels,” said senior supervisory veterinary inspector Eoin Ryan, when Department officials took part in a recent Oireachtas committee on agriculture discussion on the tb eradication programme.