Ulster Unionist Party Agriculture Spokesperson Harold McKee has called on the DAERA Minister for a new approach to tackling bovine tuberculosis. The South Down MLA was commenting after he received responses to a series of Assembly Questions he tabled to Michelle McIllveen which have now revealed that the number of TB reactors, the costs related to the government eradication scheme and the level of compensation being paid out have all risen sharply over the last 5 years.

Harold McKee said:

“TB is blighting thousands of local farms each year by strangling cash flows and disrupting the continuity of herds. The discovery of a reactor often comes as a body blow to a farm business as the subsequent closure can lead to their animals literally eating into what limited marginal profits should have been made from their sale.

“The frustration of the farming community right across Northern Ireland is understandably growing as they are being forced to keep enduring the realities and hardships of this disease. In fact, many are becoming increasingly angry with what they see as total inaction from the Agriculture Department at Stormont at tackling the disease.

“Indeed, it only came after serious pressure from my Party colleagues and the industry that DARD eventually agreed to proceed with a limited testing and vaccination scheme – the so-called wildlife intervention programme. Four years later however, and with the initial 5-year deadline rapidly approaching, I am yet to hear what actual progress this scheme has made.

“In the meantime however in response to an Assembly Question I have been able to reveal that the cost to the Northern Ireland public purse of the TB Eradication Programme jumped from £22m in 2010/11 to £29m 2014/15. A similar spike was experienced in the numbers of TB reactors being slaughtered, and the compensation needing to be paid to farmers to make up for the financial loss that they were experiencing with the latter rising from £8.5m in 2010/11 to £14m in 2014/15. Of course an animal that has been deliberately reared for breeding for instance is often worth far more than the compensation that is later received so very often farmers are having to ensure financial losses as well.

“It is becoming increasingly important and urgent for this disease to be tackled head-on. Eradication will never be achieved with piecemeal efforts or apathetic Ministers. Unfortunately, I have heard nothing from the current Minister on whether she is going to do anything differently at all, despite the DUP in the past being critical of their Sinn Fein colleagues for adopting the exact same unconcerned approach that they are now.” 

ENDS