The number of bovine tuberculosis (TB) reactors in Northern Ireland increased by 13% in a year, according to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).
The statistics provided by the department’s Veterinary Service Animal Health Group shows there were 20,510 TB skin test reactor animals in 2024.
That is up by 2,360 animals compared to the 2023 figure of 18,150 reactors, and marks an 18% increase on 2022 when there were 17,370 reactors.
The Newry Divisional Veterinary Office (DVO) recorded the highest number of reactor animals at 3,430, followed by Enniskillen on 3,344.
A TB reactor animal is defined as an animal where the manual interpretation field for a skin test is positive with the first test date being taken as the time at which the animal became a reactor.
Animals with lesions at routine slaughter are not taken into account.
Northern Ireland
The data shows that annual TB herd incidence in Northern Ireland stood at 10.7% in 2024, up from 10.05% in the previous year. By comparison, the annual herd incidence was 7.85% in 2019.
Last year, there were 2,314 reactor herds identified by DAERA, up from 2,199 herds in 2023.
A herd is defined as being a TB reactor herd if it had at least one TB reactor animal in a month and no TB reactor animals during the previous 12 months.
The Enniskillen DVO recorded the highest annual herd incidence at 12.45%, followed by Newtownards at 13.62%.
DAERA said there were 3,270 unique herd breakdowns in 2024, compared to 3,107 a year previously.
A TB unique herd breakdown is a herd which has had at least one TB reactor during the specified calendar year irrespective of any TB reactors during the previous calendar year.
The data also shows that the annual animal incidence rate was 1.15% last year, compared to 0.98% in 2023 and 0.75% in 2019.
