Veterinary Services

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 October 2021

Tuesday, 12 October 2021

Ceisteanna (659)

Matt Shanahan

Ceist:

659. Deputy Matt Shanahan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the veterinary resources that are made available by his Department to the managing of the TB eradication scheme which manages badger monitoring, vaccination and culling operations to inhibit the spread of the disease; if these are resourced personnel Department employees or in the service outsourced; the level of badger culling activity per year that has taken place in the country by badger number over the past five years up to the present month; the percentage of overall badger population that this represents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49376/21]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Resources are applied to the Wildlife Programme in two ways; Technical agricultural officers oversee the surveying for badger setts in terms of finding those setts and determining the level of activity at those sites. They also oversee the capturing of badgers by contract staff for both badger culling and vaccination.

Veterinary Inspectors anaesthetise and vaccinate badgers in the vaccination zones. There are currently 41.5 FTE technical DAFM staff dedicated to wildlife duties. There are 134 outsourced contract staff engaged in surveying or capture activity on a full time or part time basis currently. The veterinary vaccination needs are serviced by the Regional Veterinary Office DAFM Veterinary Inspectorate of 133 FTEs as part of their duties.

The numbers relating to the Deputy's question on culling are contained in the table below.

Year	Number of badgers culled
2021 to date	4,036
2020	4,803
2019	5,254
2018	5,589
2017	5,818
2016	6,162

A recent scientific paper estimated the current badger population at 63,188

DAFM is currently committed to reducing badger culling in favour of badger vaccination which is more sustainable in the long term for both ecological and disease reasons, in line with the Programme for Government commitment Badger culling has been demonstrated to be an effective in reducing the burden of bovine TB on Irish family farms for over 20 years.

This is possible because badger vaccination has been demonstrated to be effective in reducing badger-to-badger TB transmission and not to be inferior to badger culling when introduced to areas with low badger densities and reduced prevalence of TB.

The current policy is to vaccinate badgers to prevent disease outbreaks and to cull badgers where necessary in response to outbreaks in areas where epidemiological investigations have demonstrated the link between badgers and TB breakdowns on cattle farms. Areas where badger culling may previously have taken place are being incorporated into the badger vaccination programme on an ongoing basis but only when any underlying disease spread to cattle from wildlife has been suppressed. This approach is consistent with peer-reviewed scientific modelling studies relating to the UK and Ireland Currently badger vaccination zones cover 19,079 Km2 .