Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 22 Mar 2000

Vol. 516 No. 4

Written Answers. - Bovine Disease Controls.

Seamus Kirk

Question:

68 Mr. Kirk asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the steps, if any, he will take having regard to the results of the tuberculosis badger linkage pilot project in County Offaly; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8367/00]

Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (Mr. Walsh)

The objective of the east Offaly project was to research the possible role of badgers in the spread of TB amongst the bovine population. My Department under licences approved by the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands removed a number of badgers so as to compare the effect of that removal on the level of TB in the associated cattle population with the level of TB in cattle in a surrounding control area. Since this project commenced in 1989, some 2,100 badgers have been removed for research purposes. The number of bovine reactors disclosed at tuberculin tests in the east Offaly project area dropped from 362 in 1989 to 30 in 1995, a reduction of 92%. Since 1995, the level of reactor removal has continued to remain low and the incidence of the disease is amongst the lowest in the country.

My Department decided to carry out similar trials in other areas to determine if a similar effect would be observed in areas of different geographical composition and with a variety of alternative farm enterprises. In 1997 the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands approved the issue of licences to remove badgers in four other experimental project areas, namely parts of Donegal, Kilkenny, north Cork and Monaghan. To date, this has resulted in some 1,600 badgers being removed from these areas and the latest research has revealed that some 21% of the badgers removed were subsequently identified as having TB.

Analysis of data in these four project areas has not yet been completed as the effect of the disease prevalence in the cattle population in these areas will not be known until sometime after the removal phase.

In the context of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, it has been agreed as part of the measures to be adopted, with the objective of reducing current levels of TB by 50% to undertake further research in the area of wildlife infection by taking a more pro active approach with a view to the removal of all sources of infection in the 20% of the country which yields some 50% of current TB reactors. I will be arranging for the finalisation of these measures with the farming and veterinary bodies in the context of the Animal Health Forum.