Allister accuses DARD of complacency over Bovine TB
29 November 2012
Allister accuses DARD of complacency over Bovine TB
Speaking in this week's Assembly debate on bovine TB, TUV Leader Jim Allister accused DARD of decades of complacency over tackling the disease and of running away from effectively tacking the wildlife contributor to the spread of TB.
In the course of his remarks Mr Allister said:-
“When you consider that for 63 years we have had cattle control measures relating to bovine TB in place in Northern Ireland, yet tonight, we still have the prevalent high levels of that disease costing huge amounts of money, it is hard to escape the conclusion that that has been six decades of failure in regard to tackling this matter.We seem to have reached a mindset whereby, within the Department, it almost appears as if there is an acceptable level of bovine TB in our herds. It is almost as if there is an onset of complacency in regard to tackling it, and that, I think, has been manifest in the approach, most particularly to the wildlife issue.
“As this report points out — I think that it is at paragraph 62 — there has not been a single country in the world that has managed to tackle bovine TB without first tackling the reservoir of the disease in wildlife. Yet, I do have to ask the question: in our 60-plus years of attempting to deal with this, how, if at all, have we seriously addressed the issue of wildlife carrying TB? It seems that the attempt has been pretty pathetic at every turn throughout those years.
“I empathise with what the Ulster Farmers' Union said in its evidence to the Committee:
"The farmers have done a lot on the cattle side, but we feel that there has been no, or very little movement, on trying to address the problem in wildlife. We feel that the Department...should recognise that attacking the reservoir of TB disease in wildlife is an essential part of the disease eradication programme."
“I must say that I came to this report hoping and expecting that it would have been more robust. I think that the report is at its weakest as regards addressing the wildlife issue. Recommendations 9 and 10 are pretty limp with respect to that, and I think that they could, and should, have been a lot tougher in that regard.
“As we read into the report, we find a lot of lip service being paid to dealing with this issue. However, we find that very often it is no more than that. From 2004, there has been a badger stakeholder group, which, frankly, has not taken us anywhere. Then, in this report, when we come to paragraph 72, it says that we are now going to move to specific wildlife intervention research. So, after six decades, we are going to have some research. In the next paragraph, it says that one of the first things that we have to do is design a model for the research. Then, we will have to test it in a pilot area. In paragraph 75, it says that we will then have to design the study itself. Where is the urgency? Where is the compulsion to get on and do something about this issue? Where is the desire to really face down the problem of bovine TB?
“The whole testing regime seems to be in the context of mere containment. When you have a test that is as inefficient as the one you describe — the skin test is patently inefficient — and we have not moved beyond that, I think that that speaks to the lack of urgency in the Department to address this issue.
“I say to the Committee and the Department that, fine as it is, this report needs to move forward with great expedition to address an issue on which the Department has dragged its heels for far too long. We cannot go on like this or we will be back here in another 10 years still discussing the processes; still talking about designing models to do this and that and still paying out huge amounts of compensation for something that could, and should, have been tackled. One of the ways it should have been tackled, I believe, is in a proper, focused cull of badgers.”
