The killing fields: TB cost farmer 20 years of hard work and his livelihood

Paddy Brosnan spent 20 years building a herd before TB saw his cattle shot, leaving him to clear up their remains and shattering his mental health and livelihood, writes Michael Clifford

Paddy Brosnan, pictured in his milking parlour in his empty dairy complex. His dairy operation was run into the ground and is his dairy complex that now stands empty. Picture: Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus LTD

Bovine TB continues to be a problem in this country despite an eradication programme that has been operating since 1954. Out of around 100,000 herds in the state, between 400 and 500 have a chronic problem with TB on an annual basis.

All of the regulations, both national and at European level, suggest that reactor cows should be taken off a farm to be euthanised. Sources in the agri world confirm that there are rare occasions when it is done on-farm.