Northern Ireland consults on shooting badgers to tackle bovine TB

Northern Ireland is consulting on whether badgers should be shot as part of its bovine TB eradication effort, with controlled shooting of free-roaming animals set out as one of three ways a cull could be delivered. The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs opened the consultation on 3 July and it closes at 5pm on Friday 25 September.

What options is DAERA consulting on?

Three wildlife interventions are under consideration, each modelled over an intervention area of at least 100 sq km.

A non-selective cull would decrease the badger population by up to 70% regardless of an individual animal's infection status. The department records that this "has never taken place in NI but has been deployed in both England and the RoI".

Test, Vaccinate or Remove is the selective alternative: badgers are captured, anaesthetised and tested at the trap side using the Dual Path Platform blood test, with those testing negative vaccinated, micro-chipped and released, and those testing positive euthanised by lethal injection. The third option is vaccination only, which the department estimates would require 30% to 40% of the badger population to be vaccinated each year to build herd immunity.

How would badgers actually be shot?

The consultation names three deployment methods for a non-selective cull: controlled shooting of free-roaming badgers, controlled shooting of cage-trapped badgers, and controlled shooting of badgers held in stopped restraints.

On free-roaming shooting the document is specific. Trained marksmen would be deployed to shoot within the intervention area from dusk to dawn, and it states that all persons shooting badgers "must be competent in the use and safe handling of firearms and will be required to demonstrate an appropriate level of marksmanship through Departmental approved training".

It notes that controlled shooting of free-roaming badgers was the prominent method used in England, supplemented by cage trapping where appropriate. Cage trapping involves digging specially designed cages into the ground close to setts.

Who would carry out a cull?

The department has costed delivery over five years for a representative 100 sq km area under three models: private industry, farmer-led not-for-profit organisations, and government.

It observes that there is currently no public sector delivery of badger interventions in either the Republic of Ireland or England. In the Republic the agriculture department commissions a private sector service provider; in England, interventions are deployed by farmer-led companies.

The consultation also asks whether Northern Ireland should enable licensed lay vaccinators, working under veterinary direction, to vaccinate badgers.

What is the scale of the disease problem?

The figures in the document are the argument for acting. Herd incidence stood at 9.78% for the 12 months to April 2026, with confirmed herd prevalence to December 2025 at 14.05%.

Departmental spending on the bTB programme is expected to exceed £70 million in 2025/26, of which £54 million is direct compensation. Over two decades the department puts the cost to the Northern Ireland public purse at an estimated £750 million, and warns that on current trajectories programme costs may exceed £1 billion over the next 15 years. An industry report is cited putting the indirect annual cost to farmers at over £96 million.

Wildlife intervention is one strand of the Bovine Tuberculosis in Northern Ireland: Blueprint for Eradication, a stakeholder-led plan of 34 actions across cattle, wildlife and people, endorsed by the minister in April 2025.

What has the minister said?

Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir said bovine tuberculosis "remains one of the most significant animal health challenges facing Northern Ireland" and that it "continues to have a devastating impact on farmers, their families and rural communities".

He was careful to leave the outcome open. "This consultation is intended to gather views on a range of possible wildlife intervention approaches, and I want to be clear that no preferred option is being proposed at this stage," he said. "As I have previously stated, any decision I take on wildlife intervention will be science-led and evidence-based."

Chief Veterinary Officer Brian Dooher said the consultation "provides an important opportunity to consider the available scientific evidence on wildlife intervention options and to reflect on their potential role, alongside other measures, in progressing towards eradication".

What happens next?

The consultation closes at 5pm on Friday 25 September 2026. After it, the minister may choose one or more intervention methods and one or more capture options for deployment in combination across Northern Ireland.

Separately, a cross-border Test, Vaccinate or Remove project began field operations on 14 July in the Derry City and Strabane District Council area, extending into north-east Donegal. It is funded with £4 million from the Transformation Fund alongside money from the Irish Government's Shared Island Fund, and the department has stressed it is separate from this consultation.

Anyone wishing to respond can read the full consultation document and submit views through the DAERA consultation page.