Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon and his Northern Ireland counterpart, Andrew Muir MLA, have announced a new project to tackle the growing impact of bovine TB on farms in one, unnamed pilot area.

Minister Heydon said the action was taken as part of his department’s acknowledgement in the TB Action Plan that tackling the disease would have to be an all-island endeavour.

Both departments will now engage in developing an overall approach for the cooperation project, which will look at putting in place measures on a coordinate, regional basis.

All actions are aimed at reducing the incidence of TB and its transmission, numbers of which have increase dramatically in the last two years.

A further announcement on the detail of the project will take place once the work is completed.