A new app to trace badger activity on farms is to be launched by the Department of Agriculture.

The 'Badger Activity' app will allow farmers to immediately report signs of badger activity on their lands to the Department.

Since badgers are known to spread TB to cattle, the app is viewed as a further enhancement of the wildlife control leg of the Department’s TB eradication programme.

Farmers will be encouraged to download the app from the Department’s website at www.bovinetb.ie and to walk their lands looking for signs of badger activity.

The manual accompanying the app contains photographic examples of badger setts, latrines, pathways, snuffle holes and paw prints.

Comprehensive picture

As it is much easier to spot activity at this time of year when vegetation is dying back, farmers will be able to report badger activity from given locations using the app.

It is envisaged that farmers using this app will assist the Department in building a more comprehensive picture, in terms of range and location, of badger activity throughout the country. This will facilitate the further extension of the Department’s badger vaccination programme.

The 'Badger Activity' app was developed in conjunction with the TB stakeholder forum and its implementation working group.

The Department has a database recording the location of some 45,000 badger setts. However, wildlife specialists maintain that there are many more unknown setts scattered across the country.

Increased numbers of badger and deer, as well as dairy expansion, have been blamed for a surge in TB levels in cattle herds over the last six years.

The latest Department figures show there were 4,484 TB-restricted herds in the country at the end of September, with 21,470 reactor animals identified in the previous 12 months. The herd incidence is running at around 4.22%.