asked the Minister for Agriculture if he is aware of the hardship caused to the people of Connacht by the recent Order restricting the movement of pigs; and if, in view of the fact that no outbreak of swine fever occurred in Connacht or is likely to occur, he will take immediate steps to limit the scope of the Order to a smaller area surrounding the location of the recent outbreak so as to obviate the hardships on the people of the West, and also on people in Counties Cavan and Monaghan which are the chief source of supply of young pigs.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Movement of Pigs.
asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will consider amending the Order relating to the movement of pigs so that such movement will be prohibited only within a radius of 40 miles of where an outbreak of swine fever occurs, as the present restrictions are detrimental to pig breeders.
I propose, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 49 and 50 together.
I am aware that the ban reimposed recently on the movement of pigs other than fat pigs for slaughter and sows for mating is causing hardship in Connacht and elsewhere particularly to persons who have not the feeding or housing resources to keep numbers of pigs on their hands past a certain stage. However, after a respite of some months swine fever again presents a grave threat to the pig industry. Urgent inquiries are on foot to determine the source of the latest outbreaks and the limits of possible spread of infection. Until these inquiries are completed and all necessary combative measures taken, it is absolutely essential that pig movements all over the country be kept at a standstill as far as practicable.
It is quite true, as Deputy Donnellan states, that no outbreak of swine fever has been confirmed in Connacht. I should not, however, care to assume, as the Deputy does, that the disease is not likely to occur in that province. In any event, as previous experience has shown, the confinement of movement restrictions to a particular area would not guarantee the continued freedom of any other part of the country from infection and dispersal of disease. Indeed, it might have the opposite effect.
I wish to assure the Deputies that the present countrywide standstill will not be maintained any longer than is absolutely necessary. My Department's efforts to deal with the situation would be greatly assisted and accelerated if everybody in the industry co-operated, first of all by observing the movement controls strictly and, secondly, by reporting any suspicious illness in pigs immediately to the Department.
While I think it is unnecessary to assure the Minister of our whole-hearted support for any measures he may take to deal with the situation, I should like to ask this question. Does he think it possible that undue emphasis is being placed on movement as compared with the urgency of the boiling of swill? Perhaps not sufficient attention is being directed to the fact that this disease may be spread by the distribution of fragments of infected bacon or pork bones which are being introduced into swill buckets and thereafter fed to pigs without prior boiling. If this be the most pregnant source of infection, might it not be possible to lighten in some measure the severe restrictions on movement at present in operation if steps were taken to impose even a penalty on those who brought swine fever on to their premises due to their failure adequately to boil swill?
I am afraid the information I have does not quite bear out the Deputy's point. Cases of swine fever have occurred where small pigs were removed 300 miles from one end of the country to the other. The other day we had a very unfortunate outbreak down in West Cork.
East Cork.
Yes, in East Cork. As the Deputy knows that is very remote from the sources of swill but the Department's veterinary staff are fully engaged all the time on this problem. It is a problem that has occurred in other countries. On the Continent they have given up hope of dealing with it by eradication measures as the disease appears. They have adopted the system as in the case of foot-and-mouth disease of inoculating the animals against infection. That would be disastrous in this country, if we should ever get to that stage. I assure the Deputy that, as far as I can know, the movement of infected pigs from one area to another is the predominant source of infection with this disease. It is of the utmost urgency for the good of the pig industry, the bacon industry, that all movement of pigs is stopped by the voluntary effort of the farmers themselves and particularly of the pig dealers.
The pig dealers have been traced as the greatest source of transport of this disease from one part of the country to the other. I appeal to them and I ask Deputies to appeal to them and to use their influence with pig dealers and farmers to put up with this very severe restriction for a time until we get rid of the disease in order that we may not have to fall back upon a system of combating it which, in the long run, would be very disadvantageous to the pig industry.
I gather from the Minister's reply that he applies the category "swill" only to such as may be collected from house to house for the purpose of feeding pigs. Will the Minister not agree with me that "swill" has a very much wider connotation and involves any food fed to pigs even if it has been taken from the dining-room or the kitchen table of the premises where the pigs are kept?
That is true.
Will the Minister not further agree that the person who is feeding nothing to his pigs but the swill coming from his own kitchen is under as great an obligation to boil it as the person who is collecting it promiscuously in the town? The Minister may find that the public are not adverting to that situation and have not come to look upon the swill collected from their own kitchen as being just as dangerous as swill collected from door to door in town or city.
Any swill, farmers' kitchen swill or any other swill, is a possible source of infection. Sometimes these infected pigs escape into the bacon factories, despite precautions. Every farmer should be careful not to feed swill unboiled to his animals. I hope they will co-operate and that the pig dealers will co-operate with the Department for some time until we get this matter under final control.
As Dublin seems to be the breeding centre of this disease, would the Minister consider prohibiting the breeding of pigs in Dublin for a considerable time?
Even that is not certain. Dublin imports a lot of small pigs, some of which come from as far away as West Cork.