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In 2018, the Irish Government approved a proposal from Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed to commit to the eradication of TB in cattle by 2030.
Since 1954, it is estimated that €5.5bn has been spent on TB eradication.
If the target to eradicate the disease by 2030 is achieved, the Department has said that by then another €1bn will have been spent if current trends continue.
Costs
In 2017, costs were estimated at €84m. They were split three ways: the Exchequer (€42m), farmers (€32m) and the EU (€10m).
EU funding has reduced over the last number of years and this looks set to continue.
The main programme costs relate to testing of animals, Department of Agriculture staff costs and administering compensation payments to farmers.
The number of TB reactors reached 17,491 at the end of 2018, according to the Department of Agriculture, the highest number since 2012.
The Department said the higher TB levels were due to more rigorous testing using gamma interferon (GIF) blood testing.
UCD professor at the Centre for Veterinary Epidemiology and Risk Analysis Simon More recently told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture that if Ireland stuck with the current TB controls, it would not be eradicated by 2079 at the latest.
“We cannot guarantee that herds are free [of TB]. There are low-risk and high-risk herds. The two main drivers for persistent risk are infection in the locality and infection in the herd,” he said.
In the TB forum consultation papers, it is proposed to set out three frameworks for additional policy measures:
1 Reducing the spread of TB to herds which are TB-free
Options available under this proposal:
i Apply extended restrictions to herds which have had TB recently, to prevent them trading with herds with no recent history of TB.
ii Assign TB risk categories to all herds, ranging from low to high, and restrict trading to herds of the same risk status or lower (for selling cattle) or higher (for buying in cattle).
iii Assign geographically based risk categories to areas and restrict trading to herds of the same risk status or lower (for selling cattle) or higher (for buying in cattle).
iv Improve farm-level biosecurity to reduce the risk of TB incursion from local sources.
v Enable those purchasing cattle to know the level of risk attributable to those cattle so that herdowners can take action to control their own risk exposure.
2 Eliminating TB from infected areas
Options available under this proposal:
i Herds with chronic TB problems are put on a programme of escalating measures to eliminate infection and mitigate the risk of future breakdown.
ii Develop a risk-based system to categorise infected herds, where the probability of infection within the herd is estimated based on the actions taken to mitigate critical risk points. The process for achieving herd freedom from TB involves addressing risks in a systemic and tailored manner.
iii Establishing area-based action plans to eliminate TB from local areas which may include known infected herds and herds which are not known to be infected.
3 Empowering farmers to manage and reduce their own risk of TB
Options available under this proposal:
i Put in place measures to enable farmers to better understand the risks posed by TB and to take actions to mitigate those risks according to their risk appetite.
ii Enable farmers purchasing cattle to know the history of those cattle in relation to risk factors for TB, particularly any time spent in herds with a history of TB.
iii Incentivise risk-mitigation behaviour by farmers by linking compensation arrangements with actions taken to reduce TB risk.
iv Improve farm biosecurity measures to mitigate TB risk pathways.
Prof Simon More has said that TB was eradicated from Australia after a long campaign, which included restrictions on risk-based trading, restrictions on herds from trading for up to eight years and risk-based trading based on geographical areas.
TB has not been eradicated yet in New Zealand, but the latest data shows that in 2016 there were just 42 infected herds in total. The goal is to eradicate TB in cattle and deer by 2026 and to eradicate it from possums, a key carrier of the disease, by 2040.
In New Zealand, key elements include an aggressive approach to eradicating the wildlife carrier (the possum), strict management of infected herds, and a risk-based trade system and movement controls based on defining higher risk areas.
SHARING OPTIONS: