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DEAR SIR: It comes as little surprise that senior Department officials continue to fritter on the edges of TB eradication like the proposal reported on by Barry Cassidy in the Irish Farmers Journal of 15 December 2018 in relation to the displaying electronically of a farmer’s TB history at marts.
The only logical conclusion to this proposal is that the Department is trying to discourage farmers from buying from certain herds/areas, thus putting these farmers out of business. This to me is unacceptable.
Meanwhile, the reservoir of TB infection in my area, ie the huge deer population, remains. In 2014,103 deer were culled and tested in north Wicklow and a 16% rate of infection was discovered. They were strain-tested and shown to be carrying the same strain of TB as cattle.
In 2015, a national deer management forum (IDMF) was set up but refused to agree on dealing with the problem and fell apart.
My herd, like my neighbour’s, continues to yo-yo between going down with TB and going clear.
I neither buy in cattle nor does my herd come into contact with other herds so to suggest that electronic displays at marts is the solution while leaving thousands of infected deer roam free is laughable if it wasn’t so serious.
Needless to say despite good support from our local DVO officials, my confidence in the senior officials in the Department to eradicate TB by 2030 is nil.
SHARING OPTIONS: