LivestockFormer Macra president Thomas Duffy told an Agriland panel at the Ploughing that blood testing should be compulsory in confirmed breakdown areas, that reactors must leave farms faster and that sick badgers are being left behind.
One herd was traced from an earlier positive herd and the other found in routine whole-herd testing; Iosco lies outside the four-county Modified Accredited Zone but has had infected wild deer and an infected herd in May, and whole-genome sequencing is under way to find the source.
LivestockRestricted herds fell to 5,300 from 6,449 a year earlier; the minister defended suspending 28 vets from testing, said the badger biosecurity scheme will reopen next year and argued that only Ireland and Britain are paying for TB research.
