Mr. Lorcan McCabe:

Since last April, if there are more than four inconclusives, they are deemed reactors and are taken away.

If there are one or two inconclusive results, they are on the herd forever but they would be subject to a blood test. In the initial blood test, 60% went down and more go down further on. This has been a hobbyhorse of mine. In 2019 around 2,300 results were inconclusive and within a couple of years 12% of them went down. The harm they caused in the meantime was horrendous. The problem is being addressed at the moment but not as well as we would like. Cattle with inconclusive results should be taken out at market valuation on the day and that would be sorted. There are historical inconclusive results and those cattle could be there six, seven or eight years. There are something in the region of 4,000 or 5,000 historical ones that are not attributed. We put several different methods to the Department. If they were taken out at full market valuation they would be gone out of the system. The other suggestion was that those animals be blood tested during the annual test, and they would be found that way. The Department is lagging way behind on this. It is putting constraints on us but there are such obvious things that could be done, like cattle with inconclusive results being taken out.