Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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3380. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the position regarding the total amount spent on badger culling by his Department in the past ten years in County Wicklow; the number of badgers that have been culled each year in the same time period in the county; and the research that has been carried out to research the impact of culling on the prevalence of tuberculosis. [39594/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The total spent on badger culling by his Department in the past ten years in County Wicklow: The information requested is not readily available. DAFM’s Wildlife Programme is delivered by 16 Regional Veterinary offices throughout the country (RVOs) (Enniscorthy RVO covers East Wicklow and Naas RVO covers West Wicklow). It involves the use of civilian operatives, equipment and supplies (e.g. restraints, anaesthetic, vaccination (BCG)) which are provided to DAFM under various contracts for the provision of goods and services. Orders made by DAFM under these contracts (and related expenditure) are based on the requirements of the Programme as a whole, rather than the needs of individual RVOs. While the allocation of supplies to RVOs are made from a central stores according to RVO demands, records are not maintained in a manner that identifies the total spend on badger vaccination or culling on a county by county basis.

The number of badgers that have been culled each year in the same time period in the county:

Research into impact of culling on prevalence of tuberculosis

Badger culling has been demonstrated to be highly effective in reducing the burden of bovine TB on Irish family farms for over 20 years. Badgers were first identified as being susceptible to infection with Mycobacterium bovis(M.bovis), the bacterium that causes bovine tuberculosis (bTB), during the 1970s. Further research concluded that badgers were likely to have been involved in the recycling of bTB in cattle and concluded that eradication of bTB from the national herd would not be feasible until TB in badgers was addressed and controlled. The main research publications relating to the impact of culling of badgers on TB prevalence are set out below.

Eves, J.A., 1993. The East Offaly Badger Research project: an interim report. The Badger. In: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, pp. 166–173.

Eves, J.A., 1999. Impact of badger removal on bovine tuberculosis in east County Offaly. Ir. Vet. J. 52, 199–203

O’Mairtin, D., Williams, D.H., Griffin, J.M., Dolan, L.A., Eves, J.A., 1998. The effect of a badger removal programme on the incidence of tuberculosis in an Irish cattle population. Prev. Vet. Med. 34, 47–56.

O’Mairtin, D., Williams, D.H., Dolan, L., Eves, J.A., Collins, J.D., 1998. The influence of selected herd factors and a badger-intervention tuberculosis-control programme on the risk of a herd-level trade restriction to a bovine population in Ireland. Prev. Vet. Med. 35, 79–90.

Griffin et al Griffin, J.M., More, S.J., Clegg, T.A., Collins, J.D., O’Boyle, I., Williams, D.H., Kelly, G.E., Costello, E., Sleeman, D.P., O’Shea, F., Duggan, M., Murphy, J., Lavin, D.P.T., 2005. Tuberculosis in cattle: the results of the four-area project. Irish Veterinary Journal58, 629-636.

Griffin, J.M., Williams, D.H., Kelly, G.E., Clegg, T.A., O’Boyle, I., Collins, J.D., More, S.J., 2005. The impact of badger removal on the control of tuberculosis in cattle herds in Ireland. Preventive Veterinary Medicine67, 237-266.