Heydon wants to 'introduce a lot more blood testing' in high-risk TB categories
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, told the Dáil today (Thursday, July 3) that "everybody is going to have to do a little bit more" in the battle against bovine TB.
Minister Heydon faced questions today from the Sinn Féin spokesperson on Agriculture, Martin Kenny on when the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) will implement new measures to tackle TB.
Deputy Kenny said the TB situation is now at "crisis point across the country".
In response Minister Heydon told the Dáil that TB is a "very challenging disease to control and eradicate".
"Levels have continued to deteriorate in recent years. As of June 22 of this year, over a 12-month period we had a herd incidence of 6.43%.
"In 2024, it was 6.04% and it is now 6.43% with over 43,455 reactors. This disease is having an impact on farmers and their families both financially and emotionally throughout rural Ireland," he added.
The minister told Deputy Kenny that there must be a "science-based approach" to tackling TB levels.
"There are three very clear causes of the spread of bovine TB: cattle-to-cattle transmission, residual transmission and wildlife. If we do not have a suite of measures that, when layered over one another, give us a level of cover that addresses all three of those areas, we will fail.
"That involves difficult decisions for all of us. It also involves a change of practice in how my department operates, in how testing operates, in how we deal with herds and in what is identified as a high-risk herd because what we have been doing has not worked and has left gaps," Minister Heydon said.
He believes that one of the current challenges is that Ireland does not have "100% foolproof testing" when it comes to the infectious disease.
"The skin test has 80% efficacy. I want to introduce a lot more blood testing in high-risk categories. The efficacy rate of such testing is over 90%.
"Ultimately, there is more TB left in herds that we have to identify. We have to identify it early and get it out rather than waiting and finding it later on because that is where the disease is seeding," the minister said.
He also pledged to provide "clarity as soon as possible" on a new action plan for bovine TB.
According to Minister Heydon the final set of proposals that he intends to bring forward to tackle the problem "will be the biggest change in our approach to TB in the 75 years the disease has been in this country".
But he has warned that these proposals will require "a significant amount of money".
"These new measures will require significant changes to the existing TB programme.
"There will be significant funding and other implications. We are currently working through the necessary preparations to implement these changes as soon as possible," Minister Heydon said.
