Dr. Damien Barrett:

First, I thank the Senator for the positive feedback on our staff on the ground. That is very much appreciated.

Mr. O'Mahony addressed the issue of the disclosed removal. From the time the regional veterinary office, RVO, is notified to slaughter, that is coming in around two days at the moment. There could be some administration. I want to highlight that it can be challenging for us to find out that it is for cattle, when cattle are plentiful. When cattle are not plentiful at slaughter, there will be more demand for them from the meat factories but then there are times when cattle are plentiful in the surge. Sometimes we have a surge of grass-fed cattle coming to slaughter and a surge in reactors at the same time, and that can make life challenging. Despite that, the average figure is usually two days from the regional veterinary officer being notified to the slaughter.

On the EBI, we met with the AI stations in July to discuss this issue of genetic resistance, to bring it to their attention and ask them to promote this with their clients. I am disappointed to hear that it was not something that was brought to the committee's attention. We specifically had that meeting so that word of this could be spread.

The next issue mentioned was mental health, and the stress that people are under. I completely appreciate that. It can be quite overwhelming for people, and people have a lot to take on together. Our colleagues in our farm safety section, the committee may be aware, had a conference on mental well-being two or three weeks ago. One of the senior people in that section spoke to our own veterinary inspectors last week about mental well-being and there is an initiative that the section is leading. It basically involves training for people so they can recognise when people are in distress. I want to emphasise that we are not going to make therapists and counsellors out of our own staff because they are not qualified to do that. However, the purpose of this training is that they can identify people who are in distress and, as diplomatically as possible, direct them to seek help. We accept that there can be a lot of sensitivities in such circumstances, and these can be difficult and sensitive conversations but this training will be made available to our staff.

The issue around the increase in reactors in the dairy industry and among dairy cows has been highlighted, and that really reflects the change in demographics in the national cattle herd. This has been the case since 2015 in particular but it was probably on the cards earlier than that. That is well recognised. The thing about dairy farming compared to other types of cattle farming is that it is more intensive. One has probably got higher stocking rates and animals being brought together twice a day with nose-to-nose contact in collecting yards. It should be remembered that this is a respiratory disease that is spread by respiratory means. There is no doubt about it; that is challenging. What is also challenging, especially in herds that were newly-established - and closed herds that are fairly stable were mentioned - is that we have evidence that these newly-established herds would have bought-in animals. They may well have bought-in animals from herds with recent TB histories.

One comes to mind where, this time last year, I came to review it. It was a large herd, and by the time I saw it, about 50 reactors had been removed. I looked and I saw that there were 70 animals that had been present at a previous breakdown. Some 60 of that 70 were present in another heard, so they were purchased in from another herd. The difficulty with our test is that sometimes, with the best will in the world, there may be animals moved that are carrying occult or latent infection. That is a challenge in the dairy herd, and we are probably living with some of the consequences of that for a while. When it gets rooted into a herd like the one I referred to, it has had a very intensive testing regime involving blood tests and enhanced blood tests, and it is still locked up 15 months since the first case. That is going to be a difficult herd to eliminate. The issue of cattle-to-cattle spread and residual infection is a difficult one. It can be difficult to get it out of a herd. As I said about the cattle-to-cattle transmission, there is greater transmission between them.

The fact that the bulk, or almost two thirds, of the reactors are dairy-bred cattle has been highlighted. That is a fact. The Senator has highlighted the stress of dealing with the calves. The trouble is we have looked at this, and these calves do not carry zero risk. Calves may be latently infected and not failing a test but a farmer could be moving them and spreading the disease. We have an outlet at the moment for these calves. They can be slaughtered. It is not the most pleasant of outlets but it is an outlet.