asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if his attention has been drawn to the fact that when recently bought cattle are included in a test on the farm on which they have recently arrived they frequently show up as reactors because they may have been tested quite recently on the previous farm on which they were kept and the remnant of the injection for that test may cause a positive reaction in the second test; and if he will investigate the posssibility of ensuring that animals are now shown to react in these circumstances and thereby be slaughtered unnecessarily.
Written Answers. - Cattle Testing.
77.
The Director of ERAD has informed me that the normal minimum 60-day interval is generally observed between tuberculin tests and that where recently bought in cattle react to a tuberculin test the reaction is unlikely to be due to any remnant of an injection from a previous test. It is more likely to be due to either (a) the animal having been in the preallergic phase of the disease at the previous test or (b) the animal not being infected at the previous test but having picked up infection during the subsequent interval.