Farmers urge actions as the cost of bovine tuberculosis is soaring in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

The cost of bovine TB is 'soaring' in Northern Ireland, with farmers in the province 'eager' to adopt a different strategy to combat the disease. The Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) has called on the Northern Irish government to urgently implement the revised bTB eradication strategy. Over the last ten years the cost of bTB has increased. According to the UFU, by April 2023, it is projected to have cost the taxpayer an additional £17.1m. These costs do not take into account any of the lost revenue incurred on farms, nor the stress that farmers are subjected to when they lose livestock to bTB. At the end of October 2022, the herd incidence level for bovine TB reached 9.95 percent. The only time it ever briefly exceeded this percentage was following the Foot and Mouth outbreak 20 years ago. UFU president David Brown said farmers across NI were 'eager' to adopt a different strategy to reduce bTB levels. “The UFU has committed a huge amount of time and resources to driving the revised bTB ...