Dr. June Fanning:

I thank the Chairman, Deputies and Senators for inviting the Department to appear before the committee today to contribute to discussions on bovine TB eradication with stakeholders.

The Department is acutely aware of the financial and emotional stress associated with a TB breakdown. It causes significant hardship for farmers and farming families, and the Department is committed to the objectives of the bovine TB eradication strategy, which aims to reduce and ultimately eradicate this disease in Ireland.

The importance of Ireland’s TB eradication programme in underpinning farm family income should not be underestimated. As a country that exports 90% of our livestock produce, access to international trade markets is fundamental.

It is a requirement of EU trade law to have an eradication programme in place. This enables Irish farmers to access the EU Single Market for our cattle, including calves, meat and milk.

It is also a requirement to access a number of third country markets. Our export markets have grown substantially in value and volume in third countries in the past ten years, and TB is a significant consideration in the context of trade and certification requirements. A cost-benefit analysis report of the TB programme carried out by Grant Thornton in 2021 estimated that in economic terms 78% of the benefits of the bovine TB eradication programme relate to private goods while 22% accrues to public goods.

It is important to stress that in recent years we are at an historically low level of TB prevalence. The focus of everyone engaged in dealing with TB is to reduce these levels even further, and move towards eradication of the disease.

However, bovine TB is a challenging disease to control and eradicate due to a number of factors, including movement of cattle with undetected infection; residual infection in cattle previously exposed to TB; the inherent limitations of the tests; a reservoir of disease wildlife, including a protected species, the badger; and inadequate biosecurity practices.

The relative contribution of each of these factors varies from farm to farm. As such, it is important that farmers are empowered to make the best choices for their own circumstances to protect their cattle from TB. It is critical that they are given practical advice based on scientific research about how they can reduce their TB risk. Farmers need relevant, useful information about their own herds and their own cattle so they themselves can make any management changes which may be necessary if they wish to avoid the costs and stress of a TB breakdown. This involves making informed decisions about the purchase of cattle and maintaining good overall herd health. The advice on how to reduce TB risk in a herd has remained generally consistent over many years and we continue to encourage farmers to act on it, using a broader range of communication tools. Stakeholder endorsement of this advice, through the TB forum, is very important in encouraging farmers to take active steps to reduce their TB risk.

Vaccinating badgers reduces the transmission of TB within the badger population and thereby reduces transmission to cattle. This protects cattle and reduces losses to farmers while safeguarding a native protected Irish wild species. Scientific research carried out in Ireland over many years has demonstrated the effectiveness of badger vaccination. We are providing information and advice on the practical steps farmers can take to reduce the risk from badgers. We can greatly mitigate the risk of TB at the wildlife-cattle interface by combining practical farmer-led risk reduction actions with the policy of vaccination to prevent breakdowns, and targeted licensed badger removal where necessary in response to spillover from badgers to cattle.

In response to the developing disease situation and to improve stakeholder involvement in achieving TB eradication, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine established the TB stakeholder forum in May 2018, in line with international best practice on the governance of animal health programmes. Its mandate is to develop evidence-informed policies that can eradicate TB. These considerations ultimately resulted in the Bovine TB Eradication Strategy 2021-2030, which was published in January 2021. The key actions in the strategy are: preventing spread from herds with a high risk of recurrence; enhanced actions to clear infection from extended breakdown herds; addressing the risk from inconclusive animals; action plans for areas with increased localised TB levels; aligning with changes in the EU animal health law TB regulations; reducing the risk posed by badgers and deer; tailored, simplified communications between the Department and herdowners; clearer messaging of the risks of TB transmission and how to address these; and biosecurity advice delivered to farmers, with a focus on practical, clear and effective actions to reduce risk and incentivise risk-lowering behaviour.

Approximately 4,400 herds are currently restricted with TB. Data analysis suggests the reasons underpinning current levels of TB incidence are the expansion of the dairy herd and the resulting increased levels of intensive cattle farming and the increased movement of cattle. These conditions are associated with heightened susceptibility to disease. We have seen a positive reduction in herds entering restrictions in the past two years, but the figure on reactors is not so positive and has increased, with just under 22,000 being disclosed so far this year.

In driving strategic change in the bovine TB programme in Ireland, the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, has consistently highlighted the critical role of stakeholder collaboration. Reflecting this, implementation of the TB strategy is being facilitated by a governance structure designed to ensure all perspectives are considered. The TB stakeholder forum is supported by three working groups - scientific, financial and implementation. Each group has an independent chair to deliver on the specific terms of reference and the working groups all report back to the TB forum.

In 2021, there were more than 9 million individual animal TB tests in more 100,000 herds. Delivering the TB programme in any given year represents a massive logistical operation achieved through the co-operation of farmers, private veterinary practitioners and Department officials across the country. It also represents a significant financial commitment from farmers and taxpayers. The overall cost of the programme has increased from an estimated €97.3 million in 2020 to an estimated €104 million in 2021, a €6.7 million, or 7%, increase in just one year. This rate of increase is not sustainable. For many years, Ireland’s TB programme has been financially supported by the EU but this is currently being phased out and will cease in 2023.

The new TB strategy sets out how the Department and stakeholders will continue to engage on the issues impacting on TB levels in Ireland. By building our policies on a foundation of science and by providing practical science-based advice which farmers can act on to reduce their risks, we can together focus our efforts to protect cattle from infection and protect farmers from the stress, uncertainty and costs of a breakdown. This will involve difficult choices and stakeholders have a responsibility to engage with these difficult choices. If additional measures to reduce TB are not supported by stakeholders, this will likely have an adverse impact on future TB trends and the drive towards eradication.

Most actions set out under the current TB strategy have either been implemented or are advancing well towards implementation. To make substantial further progress on TB in the 2023-2025 period, additional steps to build on the current strategy will be needed. Options were presented by the Department to the TB forum and we discussed these options with farming organisations for consideration in October 2021 and again in February 2022. The options presented were: voluntary or mandatory informed purchasing; voluntary or mandatory risk-based trading; incentivising risk lowering behaviours and disincentivising risk elevating behaviours; reducing spread between areas using contract rearing risk mitigation and restrictions on movements from high to low TB areas; dynamic risk estimation at herd and animal level; supporting quality TB testing using gamma interferon blood testing and spatial tools to identify each group of cattle; and reducing spread from high-risk herds by restricting older breeding cattle and confining TB-exposed cattle to controlled finishing units. Based on these stakeholder discussions, the scope of what the farm organisations are prepared to accept as next steps from 2023-2025 has become clear. While more progressive measures, such as informed purchasing, risk based trading and increased restrictions on high-risk herds and animals, would be expected to lead to a sharper reduction in TB, these do not currently have stakeholder support.

We now have the building blocks in place to implement additional measures to the existing TB programme that can lower disease incidence and result in fewer farm families having to endure the challenges associated with a TB restriction. We are committed to constructive engagement with all stakeholders in helping the farming community. I sincerely hope the next time we address the committee on bovine TB, we will be in a position to outline a positive picture of reducing TB incidence and a trajectory towards eradication. I and my colleagues welcome any questions from members of the committee.