A farmer from Co. Armagh has been sentenced for failure to comply with notice to isolate tuberculosis (TB) reactors.
Philip Thomas Gordon (26) was convicted of one charge of failure to comply with a notice in breach of Article 9(1) of the Tuberculosis Control Order (Northern Ireland) 1999, contrary to Article 52(1)(a) of the Diseases of Animals (Northern Ireland) 1981 at Armagh Magistrates' Court today (Monday, April 4).
He was fined £500 plus a £15 offender levy.
The farmer's case arose following a cattle identification inspection carried out by officers from Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) Welfare and Enforcement Branch.
In total, 91 animals that had previously tested positive for tuberculosis were not isolated to prevent further spread of the disease.
This, DAERA said, clearly undermines the efforts of the farming community and DAERA to ensure a healthy national disease-controlled herd and safe beef to sell on the home market and abroad.
The legislation, DAERA noted, is in place to prevent the spread of disease in herds and neighbouring herds, and the majority of herd keepers fully comply with the requirements of the TB eradication scheme.
Agriland's court stories since April 1
In the Republic of Ireland last week, a mart operator was ordered in court to pay €10,000 in personal damages to a Limerick dairy farmer from injuries she sustained after a 1t bull escaped from a pen at Ennis Mart five years ago.
Read more on this here.
Over in the UK last week, a former farmer from Derbyshire was ordered to pay a total of £24,120 for two offences of illegally burning waste between September 2016 and June 2018.
Read more on this here.
And, also in the UK last week, a farmer was fined after a worker suffered multiple injuries after becoming entangled in the contra-rotating rollers of a potato harvester.
Read more on this here.
