Results 1-16 of 16 for badger cull speaker:Michael Creed

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Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Tuberculosis Eradication Programme (27 May 2020)

Michael Creed: In February 2018, I announced that vaccination of badgers against tuberculosis (TB) had commenced as an integral part of the bovine TB eradication programme. Vaccination would commence in areas where successful field trials had already taken place with a view to gradually rolling it out to other parts of the country over time. As I stated then, my view is that this marks a major step...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Culls (4 Apr 2019)

Michael Creed: ...of a detailed scientific investigation being carried out by my officials in collaboration with UCD, focusing on the genetic relationship between strains of bovine TB isolated from cattle, deer and badgers in Co. Wicklow. Previous work carried out by my officials in this area had demonstrated that the same strains were circulating in the three species in the Calary area of Wicklow. A...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Bovine Disease Controls (26 Mar 2019)

Michael Creed: ...investigation being carried out by officials from my Department in collaboration with UCD, focusing on the genetic relationship between strains of bovine TB isolated from cattle, deer and badgers in County Wicklow. Previous work carried out by my officials in this area had demonstrated that the same strains were circulating in the three species in the Calary area of Wicklow. A related...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Tuberculosis Eradication Programme (13 Mar 2019)

Michael Creed: From January 2018, the formal badger Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination programme commenced in the areas which formed part of the field trials, i.e. in parts of counties Monaghan, Longford, Galway, Tipperary, Waterford, Kilkenny, Cork and in all of Louth. Badgers in a vaccination area are captured, vaccinated and released instead of being captured and culled. The...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Disease Controls (15 Jan 2019)

Michael Creed: Capturing of badgers only takes place in areas where serious outbreaks of TB have been identified in cattle herds and where my Department’s Veterinary Inspectorate has found, following an epidemiological examination, that badgers are the likely source of infection. Commencing in 2002, systems were put in place in every Regional Veterinary Office area in the country whereby serious...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hare Coursing (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: ...Department through veterinarian attendance and of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, which issues the said licences. The Deputy digressed into a host of other issues, including badgers. She will be aware that my Department is moving to a vaccination programme for badgers rather than one of culling. While culling will continue to be an element of management in certain...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Culls (10 Oct 2018)

Michael Creed: Field trials testing the effectiveness of badger vaccination as an alternative to removal were conducted from 2014 to 2017 in areas where the wildlife program had been running in excess of 5 years and where local densities of badgers were considered low enough to be suitable candidates for vaccination with BCG. The findings confirmed that vaccination of badgers can play a role in reducing...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Culls (7 Sep 2018)

Michael Creed: The numbers of badgers culled annually are published as part of the Annual Report of the National Parks and Wildlife Service of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, and I attach for the Deputy’s convenience the figures for 2015 and 2016 extracted from those Annual Reports – tables 1 and 2 below. While the figures for 2017 are not yet published, I am in a...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Culls (27 Feb 2018)

Michael Creed: ...operating protocols, where herds are identified with a serious outbreak of bovine tuberculosis, and where my Department’s epidemiological investigations into the cause of the breakdown implicates badgers as a possible source, a capturing program is set up in the local area. The aims of the program are to manage the local population of badgers downward to mitigate badger to cattle...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Deer Culls (7 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: ...same, my officials are of the view that this is highly likely. To investigate this view, the results of an analysis (known as “strain typing”) of samples known taken from deer infected with TB and culled in the Calary area of Co. Wicklow in 2015 are currently awaited.  Previous studies have shown that some strains of TB are common to both species and indeed badgers in...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: TB Eradication Scheme (28 Feb 2017)

Michael Creed: ...trees and to private gardens by deer and on TB levels in the West Wicklow area. The report proposes an all Wicklow approach to tackling the impact of deer on bovine TB and to the management of a cull. I should explain that, while I am aware of the concerns expressed by farmers in the Wicklow area about the negative impact of deer on the incidence of TB in the area and on pasture and...

Other Questions: Bovine Disease Controls (30 Nov 2016)

Michael Creed: .... My Department is not in the slipstream of this either: we are in the vanguard in driving it. However, we must have a rational, scientific basis on which to proceed. In the interim, where badger issues associated with TB outbreaks in particular areas are identified - the Department investigates each individual case and tries to identify its causes - the culling, which is part of the...

Other Questions: Bovine Disease Controls (30 Nov 2016)

Michael Creed: As I mentioned in my response to Parliamentary Question No. 41 on 27 October, it is my Department's intention to deploy a full badger vaccination strategy as soon as robust scientific evidence becomes available that demonstrates such a programme is practicable and will deliver an outcome equivalent to the existing wildlife programme. In this context, my Department is involved in a range of...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Bovine Disease Controls (27 Oct 2016)

Michael Creed: There is very considerable scientific evidence of a link between badgers and cattle in the context of the spread of bovine TB.  Research conducted over the years by my Department and others has demonstrated that the eradication of bovine TB disease is not a practicable proposition until the issue of the reservoir of infection in badgers, which is seeding infection into the cattle...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: TB Eradication Scheme (7 Jul 2016)

Michael Creed: The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine fully complies with the terms and conditions of licences issued by the National Parks and Wildlife Service to remove badgers in the context of its Bovine TB eradication programme. My officials work very closely with those of the NPWS in implementing this policy and are in constant contact on the badger capturing programme, including at local...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: TB Eradication Scheme (30 Jun 2016)

Michael Creed: My Department’s view is that insofar as TB is concerned the primary underlying problem in localised areas where TB levels are high is driven primarily by badgers and not by deer. International research has shown that deer as a species are not particularly effective as maintenance hosts for TB except when numbers are high. An exercise conducted in 2007-2008 in an area with known TB...