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Tuberculosis Incidence

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 June 2012

Thursday, 14 June 2012

Ceisteanna (16)

Sandra McLellan

Ceist:

16 Deputy Sandra McLellan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if there is any research into the impact that forestry thinning has on badger movements and the spread of TB; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28662/12]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

As far as I can ascertain, there has been no specific research conducted in Ireland to date on the impact of forest thinning on badger movements and the spread of TB either by or on behalf of my Department or the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), the primary organisation responsible for assessing impact on and managing wild populations.

Neither has my Department identified forestry thinning, which occurs on a regular basis during the growing phase of forestry, as a particular risk for bovine TB. However, during the course of a study into the effects of major road realignment on badger movement, my Department had the opportunity to assess the impact of clear felling a portion of forest on badger movement. The badger population in that local area did not appear to have any consequential altered movement pattern. There is evidence that in Ireland badgers prefer to inhabit pasture and field ditches and that badger setts are generally only found in the margins of forests. Badgers will occupy more than one sett and regularly move between setts. In view of this, it is unlikely that forestry thinning will have a significant impact on badger movements or the spread of TB.

There is considerable research available to indicate that badgers have contributed to the spread of TB in cattle. On the basis of this research, the TB eradication programme contains a wildlife policy element, involving surveying the land and removing badgers where bovine TB is found and where badgers are implicated in the breakdown. In the context of implementing this policy, research which has been funded by my Department has found that any disruption of badger social groups resulting from the culling of badgers has not led to increased incidence of TB in cattle.

The badger removal policy has contributed to a significant reduction in the levels of the disease in cattle and badgers in recent years. The incidence of TB in cattle herds has been falling steadily over the years, from a level of 7.53% in 2000 to 4.18% in 2011 and the indications are that levels are continuing to fall in 2012. The number of reactors recorded in 2011 was, at 18,500, the lowest recorded since the TB eradication scheme was introduced in the 1950s.

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