Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, has today opened the Seventh International Conference on Mycobacterium bovis (bovine tuberculosis).
Welcoming over 350 international and national delegates to the event in Galway, he said:
“This is truly an international event. For the next four days, this conference will bring together scientists, policy makers, veterinarians, and industry leaders from around the world. Speakers and delegates from thirty countries will share
knowledge and expertise, playing a vital role in controlling and eradicating a disease that gives rise to real worries for farm families and takes a huge toll on productivity.
“For an eradication programme to succeed, good policy making must be informed by strong scientific evidence. It is the ‘why and what’ questions of science that provide a foundation for the ‘how’ of policy, and although control and eradication of bovine tuberculosis is challenging, it is not impossible.”
Focusing on the importance of collaboration in tackling the challenge of bovine TB, the Minister said:
“Bovine TB is a ‘wicked’ problem, and deep collaboration, where everyone plays his or her role, is crucial to successfully tackling and eradicating this disease. Here in Ireland, we are putting that policy into action.
“Our TB Stakeholder Forum’s collaborative model is yielding real and impactful progress - incidence rates are decreasing steadily, and farmers, vets, scientists, economic operators and my own department all have vital roles to play. The journey ahead is challenging, but conferences like these, and the value we place on the scientific approach, make it possible to travel that journey successfully.”
The international M. Bovis conference is being held in NUI Galway from 7-10 June.
For further information please visit www.mbovis2022.com.
The previous conferences on Mycobacterium bovis took place in Dublin 1991, Dunedin 1995, Cambridge 2000, Dublin 2005, Wellington 2009, and Cardiff 2014.
The conference is organised by a group of volunteers comprised of retired and serving members of staff from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and personnel from the Centre for Veterinary Epidemiology and Risk Analysis (CVERA) at University College Dublin.
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