A badger cull in bovine TB hotspot areas in NI is set to be delayed due to legal action from wildlife campaigners and the ongoing political stalemate at Stormont.

A spokesperson for DAERA said the process of getting legislation in place to allow a badger cull to begin is on hold until an upcoming legal case in the High Court has finished.

“The wildlife intervention is the subject of a judicial review which is due to be heard on 9 September. Once this process concludes further consideration will be given to the legislative approvals process,” the spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal.

Even if DAERA wins the case quickly, there are doubts about whether the required legislation can be passed without at a functioning Assembly and Executive at Stormont.

In the absence of a sitting Executive, Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots is planning to take the matter forward through individual correspondence sent to each government minister in NI.

“The Minister intends to write to his Ministerial colleagues providing a summary of the key measures he intends to take forward and to seek their support for the new bovine TB eradication strategy,” the DAERA spokesperson said.

Badger culls are required to take place during the summer and early autumn, so the various delays mean it is highly unlikely that a cull will happen in NI this year.

TB rates

The delay is set against a backdrop of bovine TB rates in NI which are again rising in NI.

The latest DAERA statistics for April 2022 show that annual herd incidence (the number of new reactor herds as a proportion of the total tested) has risen to over 9%, the highest it has been since early 2019, and one of the highest rates seen in the last 20 years.

To the end of April 2022 a total of 4,641 cattle have been removed as reactors at a TB test, up nearly 5% on the same period in 2021 and 15% ahead of the equivalent 2020 figure.

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