Progress in terms of reducing cell count at farm level has stalled, despite significant strides made post-2013, Dr Laurence Shalloo from Teagasc has said.

Cell count at farm level dropped from a peak of 272,000 cells/ml in 2009, to a low of 175,000 cells/ml in 2017.

“A slightly worrying trend is that it’s starting to creep up again and we’ve seen that it’s gone from 176 [in 2019] to 190 [in 2023].

“That is something we need to be a little concerned about now – we were all in the happy place when it was dropping.

“ I don’t think we can fully answer why we got those reductions.

“We also maybe don’t fully understand why things are creeping up a little bit now.

“We need to increase our understanding on it,” Shalloo maintained.