Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 June 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food

TB Eradication Programme: Discussion

2:00 am

Dr. Damien Barrett:

No, we do not. We have TB in a multi-host system. For the most part, our evidence will show that badgers are the main reservoir of infection in wildlife but we have a multi-host system where it is a combination of infection in badgers and cattle, and we cannot cherry-pick between either. They are the main drivers. Given that we have about 7 million cattle in the country and about 120,000 to 150,000 badgers, based on those figures, the driver of infection is coming from cattle.

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