The chief veterinary officer (CVO) for NI, Dr Robert Huey, has apologised for the delay in implementing a new TB eradication strategy.

“When we started down this road shortly after I became CVO seven years ago, I wouldn’t have believed that we wouldn’t be doing more by now.

“I can only apologise to everyone for that,” he said at the Ulster Farmers’ Union AGM last week.

Wildlife

Huey said that a “list of options” for wildlife intervention have been put to Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots and, when he decides on his preference, it will be subject to a public consultation.

“We will ask for your opinion and do that quickly.

“There are big decisions here, they are generational decisions and things will change, and have to change.

“I am looking for the farming community, when we get there, to help me implement those changes,” he said.

Speaking in the NI Assembly on Tuesday, Minister Poots has said that a consultation on his preferred options for a new TB strategy will be launched “imminently”.

“I wish to see the implementation of the new TB strategy as soon as practicably possible in 2021,” he said.