Written answers

Tuesday, 1 February 2005

Department of Agriculture and Food

Bovine Diseases

8:00 pm

Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)
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Question 240: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if a bounty is available to farmers for killing badgers; if there is a licence available to farmers to cull badgers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2358/05]

Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)
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Question 241: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if pilot schemes of badger culling have been introduced here to combat the spread of tuberculosis in cattle; the number of badgers killed to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2359/05]

Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)
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Question 242: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the number of badgers culled in the interests of eradicating bovine tuberculosis; the methods of killing used; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2360/05]

Photo of Mary CoughlanMary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 240 to 242, inclusive, together.

Various scientific investigations into the role of badgers in the spread of bovine TB have concluded that there is a link between infected badgers and the transmission and spread of the disease. The first study of the effect of the removal of badgers on the incidence of bovine TB took place in east Offaly in the 1980s and early 1990s and demonstrated that the removal of badgers resulted in a substantial reduction of TB in the bovine herd. A more recent study was undertaken by the Centre for Veterinary Epidemiology and Risk Analysis, CVERA, on behalf of my Department and confirmed the findings of the east Offaly study. This study compared the incidence of TB in cattle in four areas — removal areas — where badgers were removed and in four other areas — comprising the reference area — where badger disturbance was minimal. The study also made comparisons with the incidence in the areas in the pre-study period. The study revealed that the removal of badgers resulted in a very significant decline in the incidence of TB in the cattle herd in the removal areas between the pre-study period and the study period, particularly in the final two years of the latter period, and by comparison with the reference areas. For example, the total number of confirmed cases in the removal areas was almost 60% lower in the study period than in the pre-study period. For the reference areas, there was little difference compared with the national trend in the incidence of the disease in the two periods.

Currently, my Department undertakes badger removals under arrangements agreed with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Under these arrangements, where an epidemiological investigation rules out other immediate causes as the source of TB and where evidence of badger activity on the holding has been found, a Department veterinary inspector may make an application for a badger capture licence to the National Parks and Wildlife Service. A condition of the licence is that constraints be checked at least once every 24 hours. In my Department's wildlife programme, the protocols for removing badgers include this condition. The badgers are killed by trained farm relief service employees using a 0.22 in. rifle. All badgers removed undergo post mortem examination for evidence of TB and some are submitted for pathological tests. There is no bounty available to farmers for killing badgers. Issuing of the licences to cull badgers is a matter for the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Over the past four years, some 16,400 badgers have been culled under the Department's research programme.

My Department is satisfied that its current badger removal policy is justified and has contributed to the decline in the number of TB reactors and the costs associated with bovine TB.

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