asked the Minister for Agriculture the number of outbreaks of ergot disease in recent years and if any improved preventative measures are contemplated.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Ergot Disease.
49.
No official statistics of ergot poisoning of livestock are available but my Department are not aware of any increase in the incidence of this problem in recent years. The Department have an advisory leaflet dealing with the symptoms and prevention of ergot poisoning, and advice is also readily available from the veterinary research laboratories and the county committees of agriculture.
Is the Minister satisfied with the situation that no record is kept of the incidence of ergot, in view of the fact that it is a disease about which we know very little and which can strike without warning?
I do not think the problem is very widespread. It occurs in pastures which have been mowed as a measure of pasture maintenance and which contain mature seed heads of grasses. In my experience it is only on mature grass heads that the ergot organism will prosper. No serious person would fail to recognise ergot if he were harvesting a fodder crop which contained ergot infected heads. It is primarily a matter of good husbandry. It is not a very serious problem. There have been serious cases of ergot poisoning in silage making but they are very scarce.
Is the Minister aware that where it occurs it is a very severe hardship? All the stock might die.
It displays a lamentable ignorance on the part of the herd owner in the making of that kind of fodder.
I do not agree. It is quite easy to miss this. Will the Minister make a special effort to publicise the possibility of this disease during this season, in view of the fact that due to lack of bulk fodder may be cut at a later stage than normal and more grass may have gone to seed?
Surely the Deputy realises that it is precisely that type of false economy that falls under the heading of bad husbandry. If it occurs under that heading, it is very easy to recognise ergot. The head of the infected grass becomes black and should not be used for fodder.
We have publicised it here.
We have publicised it more than enough.