An animal with a inconclusive TB skin test result is 12 times more likely to fail a future test than an animal that has passed a test, the Department of Agriculture has revealed.

Superintending veterinary inspector at the Department of Agriculture Damien Barrett has urged farmers to remove these animals promptly in order to curtail the spread of TB within the herd.

“The risk is too great – an inconclusive animal after a previous breakdown is especially worrisome. People are well used to managing other risks and this is a risk that they need to manage to avoid breakdowns in the future,” Barrett warned.

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Despite an improvement in the number of TB reactors and the herd incidence rate in the second half of 2025, the current herd incidence of 5.68% is still too high, according to Barrett.

Reactor numbers are double what they were in 2018. Meanwhile, since 2019 the number of cattle with lesions in the factory has also doubled.

Irish dairy herds had their lowest levels of TB after quotas were abolished in 2015 – it was then, he added, that “complacency set into the system”.

“We’re not declaring victory and we won’t be declaring victory any time soon because we’re not in a position to, but, at this point in time, we’ve stopped it going up,” Barrett said.

“We need to take aggressive action to start to push it down and this [TB] action plan is designed to do that.”