Farmers are pessimistic about TB eradication progress - study

Farmers are pessimistic about the progress being made in eradicating TB, a study has found.

A recent study carried out by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) found that Irish farmers were "pessimistic" about the likelihood that TB would be eradicated in the next 10 years.

The study used interviews and a survey experiment to identify the beliefs, perceptions and knowledge most closely associated with on-farm biosecurity behaviour.

Some 60 farmers from different herd types and across different regions of Ireland were involved in the study.

It looked at farmers' behaviour around preventing TB entering their farm and their opinion on the recommended biosecurity measures.

The strongest predictor of a farmer’s biosecurity score was how effective they believed the recommended actions to be.

Actions

Actions to keep TB from entering the farm were perceived to be most effective, including keeping a closed herd, stopping cattle accessing badger setts, fencing boundaries and buying from herds with a recent TB test.

A dominant theme from the interviews was the mental toll that TB takes, as well as a sense of fatalism about preventing the disease from spreading.

There was also some frustration with what were perceived to be long or overly complex official communications.

Some farmers queried the effectiveness of some of the Department of Agriculture's recommended measures.

The top-ranked barriers to eradication were perceived to be too little culling of wildlife and purchasing from herds with a history of TB.