Over 4,000 farms experienced a TB breakdown in 2019, the highest recorded incidence since 2013, figures from the Department of Agriculture show.

TB levels have increased for a third year in a row with 3.72% of all herds experiencing a breakdown, up from 3.51% in 2018. Despite an increase in the number of herds affected, the overall number of cattle identified with TB fell by 433 to 17,058.

Monaghan, Cavan, Louth and north Meath, as well as parts of Clare, Cork, and Wicklow remain blackspots for TB.

Both Monaghan and Cork north, two of the most densely populated cattle areas, recorded TB levels of almost twice the national average at 7.02% and 6.12% respectively.

Over one in 10 reactors were detected in Cork north alone with 1,993 cattle removed, while 1,336 were detected in Monaghan.

Farmers in Monaghan, and most recently Clare, have been subject to a more stringent TB testing regime as part of the Department’s high-impact TB control plan.

A TB test is carried out every four months in these areas in a bid to identify the disease as quickly as possible.

West Wicklow continues to be dogged by TB. The region is not as densely populated as Monaghan or Cork north, but 12% of farmers had a breakdown in 2019.

While TB levels have fallen over the last decade, down from 5% in 2009, the recent trend reversal has come at a pivotal year in Ireland’s TB programme.

The Department is due to publish a 10-year strategy this year mapping out a route to TB eradication.

This strategy will be formed from proposals included in the TB forum’s report and a spending review of the programme published in 2019.

IFA animal health chair Pat Farrell said despite the increase in the incidence rate, the fall in reactor numbers was a positive development.

The greater use of blood testing, known as gamma interferon, was leading to an earlier detection of reactors reducing the risk of larger outbreaks, he said.