Falling tuberculosis (TB) levels witnessed earlier this year appear to have slowed down, but the number of reactors removed over the past 12 months still remains lower for the corresponding point in 2025.

The mid-year figures, when published, made for one of the most encouraging quarterly releases of TB statistics by the Department of Agriculture in recent years.

There was a 20% drop in reactors removed in the 12 months up to the end of June 2026 compared to the same stage in 2025, equating to 34,886 reactors.

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Those figures, however, arrived amid warnings that farmers should expect an uptick in numbers with the renewed focus on blood testing in larger TB breakdowns. This move aimed to flush out cattle with the disease at an earlier stage than skin tests would allow. New Department figures provided to the Irish Farmers Journal show that 35,569 reactors have been identified in the 12 months up to the end of August. This is a slight rise on the 12-month figures reported two months previously but still over 5,000-head down on the same stage of 2026.

Worsening areas

Comparing the 12 months up to the end of this August against August 2025’s figures shows that reactor numbers increased year-on-year in counties Carlow, Donegal, Kildare, Laois, Limerick, Wexford and Wicklow, with north Cork’s reactors also up.

Twelve-month TB herd incidence has increased in counties Carlow, Donegal, Kildare, Tipperary, Louth, Wexford, Wicklow and Roscommon.

Herd incidence refers to the number of herds that ‘went down with TB’ compared to all herds that have been tested over a given 12-month period and which had received the ‘all clear’ at their previous herd test.

Wicklow

The situation in the disease hotspot of Wicklow looks to have worsened over the past year. The equivalent of over one in five herds in the west of the county that previously tested clear of TB have gone down in the 12 months since.

That has fuelled a 52% spike in reactor removals – which rose from 829 to 1,260 – in the west of the county.

Reactors surged by 34% in Wicklow east to 1,349, and herd incidence also increased, albeit not to the same extent, to stand at 11.8% by the end of last month.

Herd incidence has jumped to almost 9.71% in Co Louth from 6.80%. That was the largest proportional jump of any area, and reactor numbers increased by over a quarter.

Tipperary’s farmers have witnessed split fortunes wrangling with the disease as the north of the county has seen herd incidence fall below 6%. Reactor numbers plummeted from over 2,600-head in the 12 months up the equivalent stage of last year, to just 1,400 this year.

The south of Co Tipperary’s herd incidence has worsened, however, to 8.11%, and reactor numbers there have also increased, by 9%, to 2,278. That figure was previously lower than the number of reactors in the county’s north.

Improvements in parts

The TB situation in Galway looked more promising as August drew to a close, with a 12-month herd incidence of 2.89%. There was a decrease of over 40% in reactor removals, to 1,381-head.

Sligo also appears to be keeping reins on disease levels, with a 12-month herd incidence of 3.24%, significantly lower than it had been in 2025. Reactor numbers have almost halved.

Leitrim, which was tracking one of the lowest rates of herd incidence in the country last year, dropped even further, to a herd incidence of 2.81% by the end of this August. Reactor numbers in the county are down by almost half to 261.

South Cork’s reactor numbers have fallen by more than a third in the space of a year to 1,523, with a herd incidence rate of 4.76%. The corresponding figures had been 3,238 and 7.30%, respectively, just one year previously.