Northern Ireland Opens bTB Consultation on Badger Cull
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- Andrew Muir launched a 12-week consultation in early July seeking views on wildlife interventions to tackle bTB, running until 25 September as part of the Blueprint for Bovine TB Eradication launched last year.
- Northern Ireland's bTB cost is expected to exceed £70m this year, with £54m (more than three-quarters) going to farmer compensation paid on a full market value basis.
- The consultation outlines three badger-intervention options: non-selective culling, a Test and Vaccinate or Remove (TVR) approach that vaccinates healthy badgers and humanely euthanises those testing positive, and vaccination only.
- Chief Veterinary Officer Brian Dooher called bTB a "complex problem" requiring a "comprehensive and evidence-based approach," while pedigree breeder Rachel Leader questioned whether there is "enough traceability" beyond badgers.
- A previous order by former minister Edwin Poots for a badger cull was quashed by the High Court; England has since effectively ended culling in favour of a vaccination strategy, and the Republic of Ireland is considering other measures.
- Farmer Conor McVeigh called the standard skin test "completely out of date" and urged that updated testing, including the new blood test, become mandatory before any elimination effort.
- Breeder Rachel Leader lost a heifer taken 18 months ago that subsequently tested clear, saying the loss of pedigree Hereford family lines she had built over generations was "devastating" — and that starting again "just doesn't work."
Why it matters: The consultation forces a £54m compensation bill onto the same table as politically fraught wildlife-intervention choices, with farmers warning that bloodlines built over generations cannot be rebuilt even after a clean test. Pedigree breeders and show-ground officials say the emotional toll on farming families is now formally on the policy agenda alongside the financial one.
