Salesian Agricultural College’s dairy herd in Pallaskenry, Co Limerick, has gone down with TB, despite the high-EBI herd getting the all-clear in the yearly herd test last November.

A total of 74 cows have been slaughtered from the herd’s 460 high-EBI dairy cows to date.

A beef heifer sold out of the herd was slaughtered by the farmer buyer in June and was found to have had multiple lesions, with a back tracing test arranged for the Salesian herd in early August after this was found, according to college principal Derek O’Donoghue.

This skin test identified 28 reactors, 19 of which had lesions.

Blood test

As more than 15 cows went down, a blood test was organised within days and a further 46 reactors were identified.

“We are just sitting tight to see what happens,” O’Donoghue told the Irish Farmers Journal.

“We need two clear tests 60 days apart and our next one is in November. If there are any more reactors, it would rule out selling calves next spring,” he said.

The herd in Pallaskenry expanded in recent years and was set to milk 480kg of solids this year, with a herd EBI in the top 1% nationally. It had no previous history with TB reactors.