Between 2019 and 2024 the rate of factory lesions has doubled, senior superintending veterinary inspector at the Department of Agriculture Damien Barrett has said.

Speaking at Veterinary Ireland's annual conference and AGM in Kilkenny on Friday, Barrett said that TB trends are like oil prices - once they start to rise they never go back down to what they were before.

The herd incidence rate for TB reached 6.5% in early 2025. Up to last week, 16 November 2025, the 12-month herd incidence rate was 5.87%, according to Department of Agriculture figures.

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Meanwhile, current reactor numbers are down from 40,044 in November 2024 to 38,243 this November.

Barrett told the conference that residual infection is becoming a bigger issue as herds have become bigger.

"Herd incidence reached 6.5% in early 2025, which was last seen in the early 2000’s and reactor numbers reached more than 40,000 cattle in 2024 which was last seen in the late-1990s.

"Cattle to cattle transmission and residual infection have assumed a greater importance in recent years since herds expanded. It is clear that the existing approach to TB eradication needs to change to meaningfully reduce disease levels," he said.

Barrett highlighted the five-point TB action plan developed by the Minister for Agriculture to address bovine TB, emphasising the importance of supporting herds that are already free of TB to remain free, reducing the impact of wildlife, detecting infection as early as possible, helping farmers improve on-farm biosecurity and reducing the spread of TB from known high risk animals.

Wildlife

Barrett added that the issue of wildlife needs to be addressed and while they're a "big part of the picture", sometimes it gets too much emphasis.

“We [the Department] reserve the right to go in and cull [badgers] in areas of high incidence where there is epidemiological justification. We have evidence in Co Wicklow that deer are involved in the epidemiology of TB. We don’t have that evidence in other parts of the country but we’re not saying it doesn’t happen,” Barrett said.