Have the new bTB proposals been given the focus they deserve?

For a variety of reasons, ICMSA is not completely satisfied that the new proposals on dealing with bTB are getting the kind of focus that we think is required. In our opinion, the present incidence in bTB is easily one of the five most pressing problems facing farmers at present and we are not convinced that all the proposals apparently ‘ready to go’ have been thought through to the degree that is necessary. 

Strategy

We are on the record as committing ourselves to changes in the TB strategy, but we are not happy with an action plan that is all about rules on farmers and ‘light’ on everyone else. We believe that the strategy should be based on science: all the stakeholders are prepared to make the kind of sacrifices that it is obvious will be required if we are to stop and then reverse the present levels of bTB. It seems clear to us that new thinking will be required and that is why we responded positively to the announcement that the relevant authorities in both jurisdictions – the Republic's Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Northern Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Environment & Rural Affairs – have launched a ‘pilot’ scheme to coordinate attempts to tackle bTB in the specific Donegal/Northwest region. Our deputy president, Eamon Carroll, surely spoke for the vast majority of farmers when he said it was a logical, timely, move and signalled a realisation that ‘the old ways’ of looking at these endemic problems have to change.

Is it even necessary to point out that bTB and the factors driving the recent surge in incidences do not respect borders or observe the niceties of jurisdiction? And, that being the case, neither should our responses? ICMSA has long believed that farmers – both north and south – are ready for a more radical approach to dealing with bTB and, indeed, other animal diseases, provided that they could be convinced that: (a) it would be effective, and (b) that all parties to the problem would engage and make the changes necessary to have an effect.

Out with the old

In fairness to Minister Heydon and his counterpart in the North, Andrew Muir, the ‘Donegal pilot’ scheme is the kind of move that farmers want to see because it signals that the old ways are recognised now as no longer adequate. What we hear, time and again, from farmers is that they are ready for a change and the extent of that willingness to go past and beyond the old measures was signalled very clearly in the ESRI survey.

 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 is telling us are contributing to the problem before systematically addressing them all. The idea that bTB is less of a problem in Tyrone than it is in Monaghan – or vice versa – is just absurd and this announcement signals that, at administrative levels, that is understood and we should see an exchange of data, information and coordinated responses.

The recent ESRI report on bTB is commendable, and we were especially struck by their conclusion: ‘Communications could focus on evidence-based narratives about the effectiveness of recommended measures while avoiding lengthy or overly technical material’. That’s a lot of meaning packed into one sentence and it’s what ICMSA has been asking the department to implement for the last number of years; use the data and science to indicate whether we are making progress or not – without getting bogged down in minutiae. 

Give it time

We are also very struck by what the ESRI identified as the ‘fatalism’ that seems to take over when bTB enters the herd and we are adamant that this attitude of ‘fatalism’ must be looked at more closely. It’s a question of morale and, if a farmer is on an endless ‘merry-go-round’ of bTB outbreaks, it becomes desperately hard to change the dynamic from a financial or mental health viewpoint. Those are the circumstances in which the department most needs to communicate with the farmers concerned and provide real solutions to those affected.

New rules are going to be introduced, and we think there’s still time take into consideration some of the issues examined in this research. It will obviously take some time before the effects and results of the new rules can be measured and understood, and ICMSA is committed to giving the new rules that time required if proper results are to be registered – both for the farmers and all the other stakeholders involved in TB. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be giving the new rules a very hard look before they are introduced and we are not satisfied that they are getting the focus that they – and the affected farmers – deserve. Farmers are suffering financially, psychologically and from a farm management perspective. The department cannot continue to ignore this fact: it needs to be addressed with fairness.