For the first time, DAERA records show that the annual number of cattle removed as bovine TB reactors at tests has crossed the 20,000 mark.In total, 20,510 reactors were found in TB tests in 2024, up 13% on the 2023 figure and nearly 60% ahead of what was found as recently as 2019. Since then, the rates of disease have generally been on an upward curve, with record highs for annual TB reactors set in each of the last three years.
For the first time, DAERA records show that the annual number of cattle removed as bovine TB reactors at tests has crossed the 20,000 mark.
In total, 20,510 reactors were found in TB tests in 2024, up 13% on the 2023 figure and nearly 60% ahead of what was found as recently as 2019. Since then, the rates of disease have generally been on an upward curve, with record highs for annual TB reactors set in each of the last three years.
During 2024, a total of 2,314 cattle herds that had been free of the disease had one or more reactors at a TB test. As a result, annual TB incidence, which measures the number of new reactor herds out of all herds tested over the period, finished 2024 at 10.70%, the highest ever year-end incidence rate recorded by DAERA.
The Department also recorded its highest-ever individual animal incidence rate of 1.149% in December 2024. Those figures suggest that in 2024, out of every 100 cattle TB tested, over 1.1 were TB reactors.
The individual animal incidence rate is highest in the area covered by Enniskillen Divisional Veterinary Office (DVO) at 1.89%, followed by Newtownards (1.44%), Omagh (1.40%) and Newry (1.35%) offices. The incidence rates at all the other DVOs are under 1%.
Back in 2014, the animal incidence rate across all of NI was just 0.55%.
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