The focus of politicians at Stormont might be on the debacle over the renewable heat incentive, but a much greater long-term cost to the public purse remains bovine TB.

At the launch of its eradication strategy last week, the TB Strategic Partnership Group (TBSPG) highlighted that over the last three years TB has cost the taxpayer £27m per year.

Listen to an interview with John Thompson of the TB Strategic Partnership Group in our podcast below:

Listen to "John Thompson on NI action plan for TB" on Spreaker.

Continuing to implement the same policy of testing and removal of TB reactor cattle will bring with it a total cost to the taxpayer estimated at £1.05bn over the next 40 years. That does not include the compliance cost that falls to farmers, estimated at £10m per year by the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU), nor the historic cost of the disease which has plagued the current generation of NI cattle producers.

The frustration with what has gone before was evident at the launch of the TB plan in Belfast last week. “We accept things must change. We must do something different. For too long, we have only tackled 50% of the problem,” commented UFU deputy president Victor Chestnutt.

Listen to reactions from Chestnutt and others in our podcast below:

Listen to "Reaction to Northern Ireland's TB action plan" on Spreaker.

“TB makes ‘cash for ash’ looks like peanuts. It is a far bigger scandal,” claimed William Taylor from Farmers For Action. “I have no faith that DAERA will actually do anything to control badgers,” said veteran farming campaigner Kevin MacAuley.

Putting the issue into context was Seaforde farmer Ashley Flemming who said that he has recently lost his 2016 Balmoral Show interbreed champion to the disease.

Fundamental to the frustration felt by farmers is the on-going failure of Government to tackle the reservoir of TB in the wildlife population. However, the new group recommends that badgers should be culled in areas where there are high levels of TB in cattle and evidence of bovine TB in the badger population. As part of the policy, it wants to see vaccination of badgers undertaken in areas surrounding the cull zone.

“Our view is that this will lead to improved health within the badger population as well. Removal and vaccination is the best and most effective way,” said TBSPG chair Sean Hogan.

However, he also made it clear that this is only one part of the solution.

The reality is that there are a number of measures put forward that will prove challenging for the farming industry.

The group recommends that compensation for reactor animals is capped at £1,500 for commercial cattle, and £1,800 for pedigree animals. One pedigree stock bull per year can be compensated to a maximum of £3,500.

In the longer term, the group recommends that DAERA moves towards paying only 75% of the value up to the appropriate cap, and floats the idea that compensation is eventually linked in some way to biosecurity measures undertaken on the farm.

More TB testing and therefore more TB reactor animals also looks inevitable in the short term, with recommendations including removing inconclusive animals as reactors in breakdown herds. In addition, the group would like more widespread use made of the blood test (gamma interferon test), which tends to be more sensitive than the skin test (an infected animal is more likely to test positive), but is more likely to produce false positives (lower specificity).

In herds which originally had two or more positive animals, and which then goes clear after two tests, the group wants two check herd tests done at six-month intervals (rather than one at present) before the herd returns to annual testing.

Re-stocking

Of particular concern to some farmers will be a recommendation that DAERA should prevent restocking of new breakdown herds until after a first re-test, which has obvious implications for those regularly trading in cattle.

While this would not affect beef finishing units constantly under TB restriction, there is a longer-term recommendation that consideration should be given to requiring a clear full herd test before cattle movement on to a farm.

Other recommendations include the Government continuing to invest in TB-related research, and establishing a new oversight body that will be informed by regional and local groups comprising DAERA officials, private vets, farmers and conservationists. The aim is to improve communication between DAERA, farmers and vets and promote best practice around TB control and eradication.

Concluding his remarks last week, TBSPG chair Sean Hogan said that only by implementing all the recommendations will NI be able to move towards eradicating bovine TB. “If we continue to do what we are, we will never get rid of TB. I don’t detect any resistance to implement this in full.’’

Despite that, he probably wasn’t overly surprised that Jennifer Fulton, the CEO of NI charity Ulster Wildlife, released a statement at the start of this week highlighting that she was “disappointed and concerned” that a large number of healthy badgers could be culled as part of the plan. She has requested a meeting with the TBSPG.

Report targets saving of £200m

Financial projections undertaken by the TB Strategic Partnership Group are over a 40-year period.

Continuing with the current policy, they estimate that TB will cost the public purse a total of £1.05bn. However, implementing the plan will result in a total cost over the same period of £850m (including initial up-front investment by Government in increased testing, culling, etc), a saving of £200m.

After that, it is assumed that NI will be free of the disease, and while surveillance testing will still be required, it comes at an annual cost of £8.5m, compared with £27m per year at present.

Principles of TB control

Bovine TB is often described as a complex disease, but according to Professor Simon More from University College Dublin, it is a statement he doesn’t necessarily agree with.

Speaking at the report launch last week, he said that the principles to ensure control of the disease are actually straightforward.

In Ireland, the two main maintenance hosts are cattle and badgers so it is important to reduce contact between both by improved biosecurity and culling.

The other control option is to improve immunity, for example by vaccinating badgers.

All three options are part of the overall TBSPG plan.

TBSPG membership and background

The TB Strategic Partnership Group (TBSPG) was formed in 2014 and tasked with developing a long-term plan to eradicate bovine TB in NI.

The group was chaired by Sean Hogan, a former chair of AFBI. Other members were Dr George McIlroy, the former CEO of AFBI, Dr Cecil McMurray, the former DARD chief scientific officer and two ex-UFU presidents – John Thompson and Campbell Tweed. None of the four members were paid for their work. The group was supported by DAERA chief vet, Robert Huey, and DAERA director of animal health and welfare, Geraldine Fee.