SDLP agriculture spokesperson and deputy chair of the agriculture committee at Stormont, Joe Byrne, has called on DARD to rethink its policy on bovine TB.

With a five-year, £7.5m DARD project now underway in a 100 square kilometre area around Banbridge and Rathfriland (the Test Vaccinate Remove – TVR study), the west Tyrone MLA has voiced concerns about the length of time before results will be available.

“It might be an effective policy, but it will take too long. Meanwhile farmers are left with the stress, trauma and cost of our high disease incidence,” Byrne told the Irish Farmers Journal.

He said it was time for DARD to seriously consider introducing a managed cull of badgers in TB blackspot areas, similar to that in place in the Republic of Ireland since the mid-1980s.

“DARD needs to face up to the situation and deal with it effectively,” added Byrne.

In 2013, TB herd incidence in the Republic of Ireland fell to historically low levels.

So far in 2014, there has been a slight increase in the disease, although it remains significantly lower than the rates in NI. The latest figures from the Republic’s Department of Agriculture show herd incidence to the end of June 2014 at 3.17% and the number of reactors per 1,000 tests at 1.80.

In NI, the latest DARD figures to the end of May 2014 put herd incidence at 4.39%, with the number of reactors per 1,000 tests at 2.85.

Bovine TB in NI has been on the decline since the most recent peak in 2012, when herd incidence was 7.32%.

Data over the last 10 years in NI suggests disease incidence tends to run in cycles.

Chair

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill has announced that Sean Hogan will take on the role as the chair of the TB strategic partnership group for a term of three years.

Last September, the Minister announced her intention to form a strategic group consisting of industry and Government representatives.

The aim is to develop a long-term strategy to eradicate TB from the cattle population here.

Hogan comes to the position having previously served for eight years to March 2014 as chairman of the board of the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI).

A recruitment process for members of the strategic group is to be announced soon.