Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon, and his Northern Ireland counterpart Andrew Muir, have announced a new project by their departments to tackle the growing impact of bovine TB on farms in a pilot area.
The project is part of the Shared Island Initiative.
Both departments will engage in developing the overall approach for the cooperation project, which is to focus on implementation of measures on a coordinated regional basis, to support reduction of bovine TB incidence and transmission.
The project will be consistent with and contribute to both department’s overall policies and approach on working with farmers to tackle the disease.
A further announcement on the detail of the project is set to be made once that engagement is completed.
Collaboration
In April, the TB Partnership Group’s Bovine TB in Northern Ireland: Blueprint for Eradication included an action to develop and pilot a regionalised approach for the implementation of novel measures, including new partnership working, using the results as a ‘proof of concept’ for deploying such measures on a countrywide basis.
It is hoped that rolling out measures on a regional basis will enable utilisation of resources more efficiently to assess the impact of the interventions on subpopulations within a given region.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s recently published TB Action Plan included an action to collaborate with Northern Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) on the programme in both jurisdictions.
Speaking on the announcement of the new project, Minister Heydon said: “In my department’s recently published TB Action Plan, we noted the need for continued collaboration between the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to tackle a disease that affects cattle farming across this island.
“I welcome this innovative new project and look forward to working with Minister Muir to agree the detail of this project in the weeks ahead.”
In welcoming the initiative, Minister Muir said: “Some of the most difficult conversations I have had since coming into post last year have been with those farmers whose herds are down with bovine TB.
“The economic impact along with the emotional and mental health stress TB breakdowns place on farm families highlight the importance of working together as we maximise our efforts to tackle this costly disease.”
