Launch of cross border TB pilot project a ‘logical’ move

The new cross border TB pilot project is a “logical” and “timely” move, according to the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA).

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon and Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland, Andrew Muir launched a pilot cooperation project to tackle TB on a regional basis.

It is part of the Shared Island Initiative and was launched this week on the farm of William Gregg near Newtown, Co. Donegal.

‘Realisation’

ICMSA deputy president, Eamon Carroll said the project “signalled a realisation that the old ways of looking at these endemic problems have to change”.

Carroll said that bovine TB and the factors driving the recent surge in incidences “did not respect borders or observe the niceties of jurisdiction” and “neither should our responses”.

He said that ICMSA had long held that farmers – both north and south – were “ready for a more radical approach to dealing with bTB”.

However, this is “provided that they could be convinced that it would be effective and that all parties to the problem would engage and make the changes necessary to have an effect”.

“In fairness to Minister Heydon and his counterpart in the north, Andrew Muir, this is the kind of move that farmers want to see,” Carroll said.

“It signals that the old ways are recognised now as no longer adequate.

“What we hear time and again from farmers in every part of the state is that they are ready for a change.”

Research

Carroll said this was shown “very clearly” through recent research by the ESRI’s Behavioural Research Unit.

This research revealed a sense of pessimism and lack of control around bTB, alongside scepticism about some prevention measures.

“Farmers will now tell you that if we keep doing what we have been doing, then we are going to keep getting what we have always got,” Carroll continued.

“And after 76 years, it’s high time to accept that we need to go beyond the old remedies and start looking at all the ways that the science says are contributing to the problem before systematically addressing them all.”

The ICMSA deputy president added that “the idea that bTB is less of a problem in Tyrone than it is in Monaghan – or vice versa – is just absurd”.

He said this week’s project announcement “signals that at administrative levels that is understood, and we are going to see exchange of data, information and coordinated responses”.

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