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On Thursday, it was revealed that 45 herds on the Iveragh Peninsula in south Co Kerry are currently locked up with TB.
The biggest issue with the current outbreak is that TB was not an issue in the area before now, as Iveragh Co-op Mart manager Mike Kissane explained.
“Our area here was completely clean until 2016. Currently we have in the region of 45 herds locked up but that’s out of a total of number of 650 herds, so it’s not a massive outbreak,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“It’s just that we were never used to having TB. We were completely clean up until that time.”
Iveragh Co-op Mart manager Mike Kissane
The TB outbreak is confined to isolated areas within the peninsula.
“Now it is an issue in a few pockets that are affected, while in other areas there are no problems, for example there isn’t a single reactor on Valentia Island, not one,” he continued.
Our area here was completely clean until 2016.
“Currently there’s about four pockets in the peninsula that are bad, in the sense that there would eight or nine herds in each that are restricted. They are in small areas within a two or three kilometre radius and there is a plan in place by the Department to get on top of the problem and I believe within six to eight months that it will be sorted.”
Open for business
Kissane’s workload as mart manager has increased, with much time now spent emphasising to buyers that, while a small proportion of farms are locked up, the surrounding area of south Kerry is still open for business.
“There’s concern that buyers might shy away from buying cattle in the area because of recent headlines. I’m going to have to explain to buyers that, look, this is the situation with TB but it’s not all bad.
“I have a duty to sell the cattle for the 93% of the herds that are clear and I’m worried about it.”
“We have good quality continental cattle and it would be a pity if we penalised the people who are able to sell their cattle as a result of a minority of the herds being restricted, and certainly those farmers don’t want that either as we are all working in this together,” the mart manager added.
Following a well-attended meeting organised by the local IFA with the Department of Agriculture last week, plans are underway to contain the TB outbreak.
The Department and farmers are working together and they hope to have the issue under control within 12 months.
Read more about the Kerry TB outbreak in this week’s Irish Farmers Journal.
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