Farm orgs respond to DAFM's proposals at TB summit
At the meeting in Dublin on Thursday (May 8), the Minister for Agriculture, Martin Heydon said that he will 'move quickly to refine' the TB Eradication Programme.
The ICSA animal health and welfare chair, John Barron believes that the summit showed a welcome intent to reinvigorate the fight against TB, but that many of the proposals 'lacked clarity and fairness'.
Barron said: 'We welcome the recognition that a new approach is needed. However, the ICSA has deep concerns about the selective use of science, vague proposals, and a growing emphasis on penalising farmers instead of reforming the system.
'Science must be applied consistently – not just to justify tougher rules for farmers while ignoring glaring gaps in wildlife control.'
'We welcome the long-overdue decision to actually test badgers for TB before vaccinating them, the fact that this hasn't been routine until now is ludicrous and shows how selectively the science is being applied,' Barron added.
According to the ICSA, the issue of uncontrolled deer populations contributing to the spread of TB 'is growing' and the problem requires 'maximum intervention, not minimal tweaking'.
The organisation also said that it will not tolerate any cuts to compensation.
Barron said: 'Cutting payments is fundamentally unfair when the precise source of infection is unknown in most cases and TB testing is far from 100% accurate.
'Any farmer can suffer a TB breakdown despite their best efforts, yet the Department's version of 'science' seems to blame farmers, and then cut their payments. That's completely unacceptable,' he added.
TB summit
The IFA animal health chair, TJ Maher has claimed that 'the ball is very much in the minister's court' following the summit.
The IFA claims it has put forward a detailed and credible set of proposals that address all the key drivers of the disease.
It also claims that it's proposals minimise the impact of TB on farmers, while utilising the tools available in a practical and pragmatic way.
Maher said: 'Minister Heydon engaged constructively in the discussions and his objective of 'striking a balance between minimising the number of affected farmers, whilst at the same time introducing impactful measures which will reduce the high levels of disease we are currently seeing', provides the opportunity for progress to be made in agreeing an enhanced programme.
'But there are a number of measures proposed by his officials in the document that fall well short of this criteria. (They) are crude and impose unnecessary and significant cost and burden on individual farmers and the broader agri sector.'
According to the IFA, the current controls are costing farmers over €150m a year.
Maher explained: 'A number of proposals contained in the document circulated by DAFM in advance of the meeting add enormously to this cost, devalues entire herds, and leaves some farms unable to sell cows for up to five years following a breakdown, this is unacceptable and unnecessary.'
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