asked the Minister for Health if, having regard to the scheme recently introduced for the long-term eradication of brucellosis, he will state what steps are being taken by him to ensure that raw milk which is a carrier of this disease and a cause of the associated disease of undulant fever is no longer purchased by hospitals for consumption by patients.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Purchase of Raw Milk by Hospitals.
2.
Undulant fever is a notifiable infectious disease, of which, in each of the last two calendar years, 13 cases were notified.
In connection with the efforts to ensure the availability of safe milk supplies, there has, in recent years, been a big increase in the number of pasteurisation plants established throughout the country. In view of this development, my Department has had under consideration the desirability of the more widespread use in local authority institutions of pasteurised milk so as to avoid any possibility of infection arising from the use of raw milk.