Around 150 landowners and hunters met in Roundwood, Co Wicklow, on Monday to launch a deer control programme in the Calary area.

Since a survey showed that 18% of deer in the area tested positive for TB two years ago, consensus has been building around the need to reduce their density.

TB prevalence is also high in badgers and cattle in the area, and farmers believe wildlife contaminates livestock.

Vets have not been able to prove such a link, but agree that overpopulation of deer in itself contributes to spreading the disease within the species.

“In the interest of deer welfare, a programme to reduce deer density should be designed and undertaken in the Calary area,” the Irish Deer Management Forum, which brings together all stakeholders, said in a statement this week.

“There seemed to be good positive vibes coming from the landowners,” said IFA hill farming chair Pat Dunne after attending the meeting.

Senior department vet Pat Meskell chaired the event, which was addressed by Minister of State for Food, Forestry and Horticulture and local Fine Gael TD Andrew Doyle.

Among the speakers was also local hunter Joe Sinnott, who was recently appointed to co-ordinate the cull programme. “He is well respected by landowners,” said Dunne.

Presentations included advice from the National Parks and Wildlife Service on how to apply for a Section 24 shooting licence, a derogation landowners will need to allow hunters to shoot on their land after the deer season closes on 28 February.

“The Department of Agriculture said they will test the cattle at the same time to see whether, as the number of deer goes down, TB goes down too,” Dunne added.

While there is no reliable data on the deer population in Ireland, the number of animals shot by hunters has increased rapidly in the past 20 years.

Although this is partly attributable to parallel growth in the number of hunters, experts agree that the population has expanded and become excessive in some areas.

“The present level of hunting does not seem to reduce the population,” Judith Annett, chair of the Irish Deer Management Forum, told the Irish Farmers Journal.

Wicklow is the county with most deer shot and has seen a more than four-fold increase over the past two decades.

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