The Department of Agriculture has seized 830 cattle and sheep so far this year, the Irish Farmers Journal can reveal.

Figures provided by the Department showed that up to Wednesday 7 July, 527 cattle have been seized across the country under the Animal Health and Welfare Act.

Galway has had the most cattle seized so far this year at 120. For the entirety of 2024, Galway had 182 cattle seized.

The next highest county was Roscommon on 113, this is a sizeable increase on the five cattle seized for all of last year.

In Munster, four counties recorded cattle seizures; Clare had 95, Waterford recorded 70, Cork had 49 and Limerick is on four. Elsewhere, 48 cattle have been seized in Westmeath, 19 in Kilkenny and nine in Mayo.

A spokesperson for the Department said that all of the livestock seizures so far this year “related to animal welfare and failure to do TB/BVD (bovine viral diarrhoea) test”.

There have also been 303 sheep seized so far this year by the Department of Agriculture, however, these have only taken place in two counties.

This figure already exceeds the 292 sheep seized for all of 2024.

By far the counties with the most ovine seizures was Laois. The O’Moore County had a total of 290 sheep seized so far this year.

The Department of Agriculture refused to confirm whether the 290 sheep were seized from the one farm in Laois.

“The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is not in a position to confirm the number of farms involved in animal seizures in any county,” a spokesperson said.

The only other county with sheep seizures was Galway, where there were 13 animals taken by the Department.

The Department said that these seizures were relating to animal welfare.