Written Answers. - Artificial Insemination Field Service.
Louis J. Belton
Question:
168
Mr. Belton
asked the
Minister for Agriculture and Food
the number of applications received from private firms in respect of AI licences; the standards laid down by his Department in the granting of licences to private companies; the number of inseminations carried out in each of the years from 1996 to 1998; the number of live calves born as a result of these inseminations and recorded with his Department's national bovine animal birth registration service in 1998; the number of calves registered with the bovine animal birth registration service in 1998; and the numbers of calves sired by beef bulls and by dairy sires.
[12879/99]
Eight of the 19 applications received by my Department for a cattle artificial insemination field service licence were submitted by private firms.
I outlined the standards laid down by my Department for the granting of cattle artificial insemination field service licences in my reply to Parliamentary Question No. 54 of 13 May 1999. These standards apply equally to private companies and co-operatives.
With regard to inseminations, my Department maintains statistics on the first inseminations carried out by the licensed AI organisations through their inseminator service. These were as follows: 1996, 934,000; 1997, 868,000; 1998, 794,000.
The number of calves registered in 1998 that were declared by herdowners as having been born as a result of artificial insemination was 350,000. It should be noted, however, that this information is optional on the birth registration form and may not reflect the true position.
The number of calves registered with the agency in 1998 was 2,559,500. The number of these calves declared by herdowners as having been sired by bulls of recognised beef and dairy breeds was 1,931,000 and 628,000, respectively.
