Eamon Gilmore
Question:5 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the total number of cattle slaughtered to date this year due to the discovery of BSE in herds; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - BSE Slaughterings.
Thirteen cases of BSE have been confirmed this year by comparison with 15 last year. The animals affected were slaughtered and their carcases destroyed.
As I outlined in my reply of 14 November, extensive and stringent precautionary measures have been put in place. These include restrictions on the herds where BSE has occurred. To alleviate the problems which such restrictions can create, I devised arrangements where my Department will assist herdowners in the voluntry depopulation of the herds. To date, 2,604 animals have been slaughtered under these arrangements.
Do the 2,604 animals constitute the total population of herds in which cases of BSE disease have been discovered so far this year?
No, not quite; I think there are some further animals. But by far the vast majority of animals in those herds have been slaughtered. There are still some — much fewer than that number — still to be slaughtered, but they will be.
First, in relation to the animals that have not been slaughtered, what measures are being taken to monitor those animals to avoid the spread of the disease? Second, is the Minister concerned that the number of cases detected in 1990 — only marginally down on the numbers in 1989 — would tend to indicate that, although the problem here is small, it is continuing at approximately the same level as it has been over the past two years and is not reducing?
No. I am glad to say the figures tend to indicate quite the opposite, that what was a mere trickle in 1989, because we do not have an indigenous problem, has been reduced further in 1990. I am sure the Deputy and every Member of the House who has the national interest at heart will welcome that greatly. I am sure as well that the Deputy and everyone else will see this is a consequence perhaps of some very stringent restrictions we put in place to prevent any contamination from any outside source. We have banned the importation of meat and bonemeal from the UK. We have banned the importation of any pedigree cattle from the UK, which was our practice over the years, because the sources we traced in 1989 and 1990 were all attributable either to imported stock or imported meat and bonemeal. In case that was not enough, we banned the feeding of even indigenous Irish meat and bonemeal. I am satisfied that we have all but eliminated what was in any event a trickle here. We do not have a problem and we want to demonstrate to the world at large that that is the case.
Is there any pattern to the location of these cases? Is there any incidence of it happening anywhere near the Border area, as has been suggested? Were the cattle that have been slaughtered concentrated in any particular location?
I gave the figures previously in the House. The Deputy can take it that there is a pattern in the sense that by far the biggest number has been in the northern half of our jurisdiction. There have been odd, isolated cases. The most recent one was a very isolated case in the south-west but in each of those cases it has been traceable to imported meat and bonemeal.
Have the sources of contamination or infection been identified in all reported incidents? If not, in how many cases have they not been identified?
In all the cases that have been fully and thoroughly examined they have been traced. We keep monitoring and checking at all times. As I have mentioned in this House before, there has been an intensive programme of instruction for our departmental vets and our private vets, and any animal that looks remotely as if it has BSE is taken out and slaughtered. We have already slaughtered many more animals that have proved to be positive. The testing goes on all the time. It is going on now on anything that looks even remotely like it, but in all instances where it is positive we have traced the source to the cases I have mentioned.