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Animal Welfare

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 May 2014

Thursday, 8 May 2014

Questions (25)

Clare Daly

Question:

25. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will implement a full nationwide closed snaring season during badgers' breeding periods in view of the substantial decline of the badger population. [20218/14]

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Written answers

The current badger removal policy was introduced as part of the bovine TB eradication programme in Ireland in 2004 in response to research conducted over the years by the Department and others which demonstrated that the eradication of Bovine TB is not a practicable proposition until the issue of the reservoir of infection in badgers, which is seeding infection into the cattle population, is addressed. This policy aims to limit the spread of TB infection between badgers and between badgers and cattle, and as a result, reduce thei role of badgers as a vector of infection to the local cattle population. It is widely recognised among the scientific community that TB is maintained independently in both cattle and badgers that share the same environment and that there is interspecies transmission. This leads to spill back to cattle leading to recurring bovine to bovine disease.

Under the wildlife strategy, badgers are removed in areas where they are associated with serious TB breakdowns in cattle. Badgers are captured under licence, issued by the National Parks and Wildlife Service of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, where they are implicated in an outbreak of TB in cattle. Capturing is undertaken only in areas where serious outbreaks of Bovine Tuberculosis have been identified in cattle herds and where an epidemiological investigation carried out by the Department’s Veterinary Inspectorate has found that badgers are the likely source of infection. Despite considerable research in both Ireland and the U.K., no test on live badgers has proven efficacious in reliably detecting TB infected badgers.

Badgers are protected by national legislation and are listed within the Berne Convention. The legislation stipulates that local populations cannot be exterminated and that badger habitats (setts) cannot be destroyed. Capturing of badgers is not permitted during the breeding season, the months of February and March, in new capture areas. In addition, it should be noted that the Irish Wildlife Trust submitted a complaint to the Council of Europe in 2012 about the threat to the badger population posed by the Department’s culling policy. This complaint was rejected by the Council which concluded that the "densities are higher than in mainland Europe and the species is not threatened nationally or locally. The policy is to keep population at safe low levels, far from causing the species to be threatened.”

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