Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the issue of tuberculosis, TB, screening. The committee previously did a report on this and we put in some recommendations which I want to revert to, because it has been a problem in this country for longer than I have been around. The incidents of it are increasing. If I heard correctly over the last few days, incidents in the first six months of this year are up again. It went from 3.27% of the bovine herd, to 4.99% in the first quarter of 2024. That is a big increase. We have gone from just over 3% to 5% of the herd. That is a serious jump. The Department outlined in correspondence to us that we got last week that research carried out found that the principal cause of the introduction and spread of TB include movement of cattle with undetected infection, residual infection in cattle previously exposed to TB, spread across farm boundaries, indirect spread via security breaches and the spread with badgers, cattle and deer which come up in some areas. Could the witnesses briefly explain what they mean by number four, which referred to indirect spread through other biodiversity breaches?