Any hope that bovine TB levels in NI might be on a downward path has been quickly extinguished, with a sharp rise in reactor numbers found at tests during July 2026.

The number of reactor cattle during the month nearly doubled compared to June, with 1,835 animals, up from 991 in the previous month.

Compared to July 2025 and July 2024, that 2026 figure is up by around 300.

It means that across the first seven months of 2026, reactor numbers are now running ahead of the previous two years, with 10,989 cattle testing positive, up from 10,811 and 10,812 in the previous two years.

Our analysis also suggests that the 2026 figure is likely to be the highest ever recorded to the end of July in NI.

To put it into context, the same period in 2020 saw 7,023 reactors, while in 2015 that figure stood at 5,897 and in 2010, it was 3,764. DAERA’s published figures go back to 2005.

There was a big spike in bovine TB back in 2002 and 2003 following a suspension of testing due to foot and mouth disease.

However, individual animal incidence rates of around 0.96% were lower than they are now. In the 40 years prior to that, those incidence rates were generally well below 0.4%.

As well as 1,835 reactors in July 2026, there were also 165 new TB reactor herds, up from 129 in the previous month. That meant new herd incidence rate over the last 12 months increased from 9.51% in June to 9.62% in July.

The animal incidence rate over the same period hit 1.084%, compared to 1.065% in June – in other words, for every 100 cattle tested in NI, at least one animal is a reactor.

Blood test

The July TB figures also include numbers removed off farms after giving a positive result to the gamma interferon (blood) test.

Over the first seven months of the year, 959 cattle have tested positive, compared to 594 over the same period in 2025.