Members from across all the main political parties at Stormont have backed a motion brought forward by Sinn Féin MLA Declan McAleer which called on Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir to urgently bring forward a comprehensive strategy to reduce bovine TB.

During the debate on Tuesday, an amendment tabled by DUP MLA Michelle McIlveen, to include “wildlife intervention” as part of the future strategy, was also agreed.

However, “wildlife intervention” is a wide-ranging term and a lot of contributions fell short of a ringing endorsement for a targeted badger cull as proposed by the TB Eradication Partnership (TBEP) and set out in the DAERA TB eradication plan from 2022.

Among those making the case for controls on badgers was McAleer, the current deputy chair of the Stormont Agriculture committee.

“Tackling wildlife reservoirs is not optional if we are serious about eradicating bovine TB,” he said.

In her contribution, UUP MLA Diana Armstrong said it was “essential” there is targeted wildlife intervention as proposed by the TBEP, while TUV MLA Timothy Gaston suggested both Minister Muir and the tabled motion, continue to “dance around the main issue”.

“If the Assembly and the minister are to get serious about addressing bovine TB, a badger cull must be introduced,” he said.

However, former Agriculture Minister Michelle McIlveen suggested there is “a range of measures relating to wildlife intervention that could be looked at beyond a simple cull”.

She added that one potential alternative could be the test, vaccinate, remove (TVR) approach, although she accepted it would come at a high financial cost.

Alliance MLA John Blair said his party recognised the need for a science-led response, but added it must not “compromise our ethical standards on the welfare of animals”. In his contribution, SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone talked about the “indiscriminate cull of up to 4,000 badgers a year” proposed as part of the DAERA eradication plan in 2022.

Minister Muir

Responding to the debate Minister Muir said a review of DAERA’s approach to TB by chief vet, Brian Dooher was “nearing completion”. However, he said little about TB in wildlife, other than acknowledging it leads to a “very emotive debate” and instead used the opportunity to highlight that cattle-to-cattle contact is the predominant cause of TB spread.

“There are elements of our farming practices that are clearly unsuited to disease control, such as fragmentation of our farm holdings and the extremely high number of cattle movements that occur throughout NI each year,” the minister said.