Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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894. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason for writing to farmers identifying animals in the herd that are at high risk of contracting tuberculosis and requesting their destruction. [23908/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Bovine TB Forum is due to reconvene shortly and my Department will continue to engage in this round table effort to eradicate Bovine TB. The Bovine TB Forum Interim Report (July 2019) identified the need for effective information to be provided to farmers. It advocated for the development of herd risk categories that are “simple, clear, and convey sufficient information to enable farmers to make the decisions appropriate to their situation”.

In line with this proposal from the Forum, my Department developed individualised reports that provide a simplified TB herd risk category for farmers, with herd-specific advice on how to reduce risk of TB. Farmers are already provided with information in relation to their TB risk, but this new report presents this in a very much more user friendly, detailed and practical form.

The TB herd history risk statement sets out to provide information to farmers about their own herds. It does not require farmers to do anything. It is advice which they can choose to take if they wish to reduce the risk of their herd to TB. DAFM bases its policy and advice on the science - there is a large body of independent robust scientific research on how TB infects cattle, which must continue to be the basis of disease policy and advice. It is by acknowledging the science of how TB spreads between cattle that will help us eradicate this disease.

While bTB disease is low relative to historical levels, TB herd incidence and reactor numbers have been gradually increasing since 2016. The pace of deterioration has accelerated in 2020. Herd incidence at 4.2% is now at its highest level since 2012 while reactor numbers at 21,000 are back at 2009 rates.

It is imperative that all stakeholders work together in reducing TB rates to support and protect farm families.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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895. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the methodology used to identify animals that are deemed to be at high risk of contracting tuberculosis. [23909/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Ongoing research over many years has identified the risk factors which can put animals and herds at higher risk for Bovine TB. Much of this research has been performed in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Britain with similar results emerging. The Centre for Veterinary Epidemiology and Research Analysis (CVERA) in UCD has been responsible for much of the research in Ireland but similar studies on risk emanate from Northern Ireland and Britain also. The results of these epidemiological analyses inform the Department's advice and initiatives on helping farmers to reduce risk to TB on their farms. Examples of the issues which can put an animal or a herd at a higher risk of TB include:

1. Animals that had previously tested inconclusive to a TB skin test, but had passed all tests thereafter are higher risk. This is because the skin test will identify only 80% of infected animals, on average, because of the failure in some cases of the animals immune system to mount a strong enough reaction. Because of this, previously inconclusive animals are restricted to the herd of disclosure for life and are removed if that herd experiences a TB breakdown.

2. Animals which had been present during a TB breakdown previously are at a higher risk for TB. The reason for this is similar to inconclusives higher risk. The animals were exposed to TB during the original breakdown and, in some cases, these may have become infected but for immunological reasons some may not react to testing and therefore remain as false negatives, i.e. clear animals. This phenomenon is called residual TB and is a significant reason why it can take up to 10 years for a herd to return to normal levels of risk after experiencing a TB breakdown. It is advisable for animals that were previously present during a breakdown to be considered for culling when decisions are being made on farms on which animals to retain, if the herdowner wishes to reduce the risk of a TB breakdown.

3. Animals which have had multiple movements are at higher risk for TB than animals which have not. This is associated with the increased potential for exposure to sources of infection because of movement between different herds and lands.

4. Significant variation in inherited susceptibility to TB has been identified and farmers can now choose to breed from bulls whose offspring are more resistant to TB.

5. Many studies have reported increased prevalence of TB with age meaning older cows are higher risk for TB. This is associated with increased chance to exposure to infection sources. This factor should be considered when making culling decisions to increase herd resilience.

The definition of a closed herd is one where none of the animals within the herd have been purchased from, or returned from, outside the herd. Animal Health Ireland and Teagasc have published advice over many years on the benefits for animal disease in maintaining a closed herd. This crucial biosecurity measure is beneficial across all cattle diseases – not just TB.

My officials provide this advice to farmers so that they can make choices appropriate to their own farming circumstances to reduce their risk of TB, should they so wish.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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896. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to review the practice of writing to farmers requesting the destruction of animals identifying as high risk of contracting tuberculosis. [23910/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Bovine TB Forum is due to reconvene shortly and my Department will continue to engage in this round table effort to eradicate Bovine TB. The Bovine TB Forum Interim Report (July 2019) identified the need for effective information to be provided to farmers. It advocated for the development of herd risk categories that are “simple, clear, and convey sufficient information to enable farmers to make the decisions appropriate to their situation”. My Department developed the TB Herd History Risk Statement and Report in line with that proposal.

The TB herd history risk statement sets out to provide information to farmers about their own herds. It does not require farmers to do anything. It is advice which they can choose to take if they wish to reduce the risk of their herd to TB. DAFM bases its policy and advice on the science - there is a large body of independent robust scientific research on how TB infects cattle, which must continue to be the basis of disease policy and advice. It is by acknowledging the science of how TB spreads between cattle that will help us eradicate this disease.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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897. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the percentage of animals slaughtered under the tuberculosis eradication programme deemed to have the disease post-mortem. [23911/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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When cattle are slaughtered as reactors under the TB eradication programme, it is because they have tested positive for infection with TB. In the past 12 months, 20,993 cattle have been slaughtered as reactors under the TB eradication programme, as they are deemed to be infected with the TB disease agent. The test specificity is estimated at 99.98%, meaning the number of false positives to the skin test is estimated at 1 animal in 5,000 tested. However, the skin test has an estimated sensitivity of 80% which means that approximately 1 in 5 animals infected with TB will not be identified by the test, on average. This means that false negatives are much more problematic for the TB programme than false positives.

Visual inspection of reactor carcases at post-mortem finds that, on average, approximately 30% of such reactors have visible lesions of tuberculosis, meaning the infection has progressed to a stage where the disease process has caused such significant tissue damage that it can be seen with the naked eye. If a reactor does not have visible disease lesions, it does not mean it is not infected; visual inspection cannot detect the presence of microscopic lesions and bacteria within the tissues of such animals.

Separately from the slaughter of TB reactors, all non-Tb reactor cattle routinely slaughtered in Ireland are subjected to a post-mortem veterinary inspection which includes surveillance for lesions suspected to be caused by TB. Each year, approximately 3,600 such suspect lesions are identified and of these, approximately 45% are subsequently found by laboratory testing to have been caused by TB. The herds from which those animals came are then subjected to follow-up testing to identify any other undetected infected cattle.