Briefing MLAs at the NI Assembly’s agriculture and rural development committee on Tuesday, DARD officials said that they were hopeful of a reduction in TB levels in NI in 2016.

Deputy chief veterinary officer Colin Hart told MLAs that annual herd incidence in NI increased from 6.03% in 2014 to 7.15% last year, but TB was now showing signs of levelling off.

Part of the increase in reactors has been due to DARD implementing a more severe interpretation at some TB tests. What might normally have been seen as inconclusive animals are removed as reactors. According to Hart, this will have longer-term benefits, but in the short term the number of reactor animals and associated compensation costs are both up.

In 2014/15, the total cost of the TB eradication programme was £28.7m, which included £6.8m for private vets and £14.4m for reactor compensation, an increase of £2m on the previous year.

However, lower fees in the new TB-testing contracts for private vets come into effect from 11 April and are expected to save DARD £650,000 annually.

While private vets will continue to cover most routine annual herd tests, DARD also retains its own vets for TB testing. But pressure on the Department to cut numbers via the civil service-wide voluntary exit scheme has resulted in 12 vets leaving DARD. Hart acknowledged it was “fortuitous” that this has coincided with NI obtaining brucellosis-free status.

When asked about the differences in results between DARD staff and private vets, Hart said that in higher-risk herd tests, DARD vets consistently found more reactor animals. “DARD vets are very focused on testing as they do it constantly but private vets are used to doing a raft of other tasks,” he explained.

Biosecurity

During the meeting, DARD officials were also keen to stress the importance of biosecurity as a means of reducing the spread of the disease. “We would like to see private vets provide biosecurity advice to farmers at the time of a TB test,” Hart told MLAs.

Biosecurity advice will also be provided to farmers taking part in new training under the Rural Development Programme, and there is a possibility that related measures might be grant aided under the Farm Business Improvement Scheme.

During the committee meeting, officials also updated MLAs on the latest results from the five-year research study into badgers and bovine TB – test, vaccinate and remove (TVR) in a high TB-incidence area around Banbridge.

In 2015, there were 341 badgers captured and tested, up from 280 the year before. However, officials refused to disclose how many of these badgers were euthanised because they were infected with TB, maintaining that it was not standard practice to put interim results from research projects into the public domain.

Officials also acknowledged that a global shortage of the BCG vaccine used to vaccinate badgers that have tested negative has put the future continuation of the project in some doubt.