The recent bovine tuberculosis (bTB) review carried out in Northern Ireland has been likened to a re-set button for the entire cattle sector.
This is the view of Dairy Council for Northern Ireland (DCNI) chief executive, Ian Stevenson, who has responded to the bTB report published over recent days by Northern Ireland’s chief vet, Brian Dooher.
The review analyses all the factors that impact on all the bTB testing and eradication measures currently employed in Northern Ireland.
“Brian Dooher’s report quite rightly points out that all the costs associated with bTB eradication are not confined to government alone.
“Farmers losing cattle in the event of a bTB outbreak are not compensated for subsequent losses in production and genetics.
“There are also the additional costs; feed, facilities and labour; associated with cattle testing and the retention of stock that could otherwise be sold in a live market.
“But by far the biggest challenge that confronts farming families coping with the impact of a bTB outbreak is the more than significant stress and mental health problems that comes with it,” he explained.
Stevenson added that: “The premature culling of animals reduces their lifetime productivity. This, in turn, has a negative impact on the achievement of our climate change targets. Â
“The financial impacts of the current bTB measures go well beyond the direct commitment made by government to the national control programme.”
Re-set button
According to the DCNI representative, the drain on the public purse associated with the current bTB testing and eradication measures are also significant.
They were introduced almost 70 years ago and if the current trajectory of disease incidence is maintained the costs on the government purse alone could amount to £1 billion over the next 15 years.
“A financial commitment of this scale linked to the prospect of not securing a satisfactory outcome to the bTB problem is totally unsustainable.
“The all-important backdrop to all of this is the fact that the current trade in bovine products emanating from Northern Ireland is valued at close to £3 billion per annum.
“This makes a significant contribution to the local economy and must be protected into the future. The need to change track and introduce a new bTB eradication approach is obvious. But there is no quick fix,” he continued.
The ineffectiveness of the “current bTB programme in getting the disease eradicated is having a demoralising and frustrating effect on everyone involved with it”, Stevenson added.
“What’s required is a new, solutions-based focus to try and get on top of the problem.
“In this context, the Dooher report highlights three key strands to be addressed holistically if meaningful progress is to be made. The first of these is the governance of a future programme,” he explained.
