A consultation on a new TB strategy for NI needs to be published within weeks if it is to be implemented by the current Agriculture Minister, MLAs have been told.

Alexander Kinnear from the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) said with the next Assembly election due in May 2027, there is limited time for a new plan to be rolled out.

“We are conscience that the Assembly mandate is running down and the need for a consultation on wildlife intervention to take place this summer,” he said. In an evidence session with Stormont’s agriculture committee, UFU representatives made clear that action is needed with wildlife intervention if more TB requirements are to be placed on farmers.

“We want to see it all moving at one pace, so there is a complete attack on this disease to get everybody to a better place,” said UFU president William Irvine.

He dismissed suggestions that a ‘test and vaccinate or remove’ approach could be used where badgers are trapped and tested for TB, with positive animals culled and negative animals vaccinated then released.

“It is horrendously expensive, and it is laborious. All veterinary science is telling us that, at our level of infection, we need a more dramatic intervention in the initial stages,” Irvine said.