The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Select Committee released a report on 27 February 2008, on Badgers and Cattle TB on the UK mainland.The report rightly highlights the need for tighter controls on cattle movements and testing as the way to combat this disease.The report also describes the situation in Northern Ireland regarding Bovine TB (bTB) stating - ‘the incidence of bTB in Northern Ireland has shown a steady decrease in recent years.’
Bovine TB disease levels in NI have fallen considerably in recent years, with the figures recently released by DARD showing a decline of 50% in herd incidence since 2002. This downward trend has been achieved without any government intervention in terms of wildlife controls, other than advice to farmers to keep cattle and badgers apart. The Ulster Wildlife Trust believes that a major factor in this reduction has been the current DARD bTB control programme (which involves testing and movement controls). In fact, the incidence of bTB in the Northern Ireland cattle herd is now lower than in the Republic, where badger culling continues.
Andrew Upton, Ulster Wildlife Trust’s Director of Nature Conservation says, “The Ulster Wildlife Trust recognises the hardship Bovine TB has caused to the farming community in Northern Ireland. We particularly recognise the important role the livestock industry can play in the environmentally-sensitive management of the countryside and the serious disruption and anxiety caused to farmers experiencing a herd TB breakdown. However, we do not believe that a badger cull would make a significant contribution to the eradication of Bovine TB in Northern Ireland.The Ulster Wildlife Trust is as keen as the farming community to see the eradication of Bovine TB from cattle and badgers in Northern Ireland and believes that there are various alternatives to a cull that have not yet been fully implemented and/or researched, such as vaccine development.
He adds, “The Ulster Wildlife Trust is calling on the Minister for the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Michelle Gildernew to throw her weight behind cattle control measures to deal with this disease and not be side-tracked by further discussions of badger culling.”
