New app to report badger activity on farms
A NEW app to report badger activity has been launched by the Minister for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue, with the bovine TB Stakeholder Forum Implementation Working Group (IWG), chaired by Dr. Sean Brady.
The new app, called Badger Activity, is available to download from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s website at bovinetb.ie.
Badgers are known to spread TB to cattle and this app, developed as a further enhancement to the department’s wildlife programme, will allow farmers to immediately report, to the department, signs of badger activity on their farms.
Commenting on the launch, Minister McConalogue said: “Since being appointed minister, I have been committed to tackling bovine TB rates. I am acutely aware of the emotional and financial burden of a TB breakdown in a herd. Only by working together can we see TB rates reduce.
“It is exciting to see the Badger Activity app come to fruition and I commend the work of the IWG chaired by Dr. Seán Brady. Each of the individual TB working groups as well as the TB Forum are committed to reducing TB rates in cattle.”
Members of the IWG, including the Irish Farmers Association, Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association, Animal Health Ireland, National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Department itself, have also welcomed this important development.
Farmers using this app will help the department build its knowledge of the range and location of badger activity throughout the country, facilitating the enhanced implementation of the wildlife control programme.
The IWG encourage all farmers to download the app and to walk their lands looking for signs of badger activity. An information video and leaflet on identifying signs of badger activity and advice on how to reduce the risk of TB from badgers to cattle is available on bovinetb.ie.
The manual accompanying the app on bovinetb.ie contains photographic examples of badger setts, latrines, pathways, snuffle holes and paw prints. It is much easier to spot activity at this time of year when vegetation is dying back.