Vol. 539 No. 1
40 Mr. Stanton asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the reason there was a gap of seven weeks from the outbreak of the foot and mouth disease in Proleek, County Louth and the announcement by his Department of serology testing on up to 200,000 sheep across the country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18417/01]
Following the confirmation of a case of foot and mouth disease in Proleek, County Louth, my immediate priority was the containment of the disease to a single outbreak within the jurisdiction. I had already established a local disease control centre in the area and had imposed stringent restrictions on the movement of susceptible animals throughout the country. As such, my primary concerns were the repeated clinical examination of all susceptible animals within a 10km radius of the outbreak, the tracing of any animal movements in and out of the area, the organisation of a cull of animals within the Cooley Peninsula and the investigation and follow-up of other reports of suspect cases throughout the country.
This was a massive undertaking which required unprecedented efforts of organisation, management and execution. It included serological surveillance in relation to suspect holdings and flocks on an ongoing and immediate basis and of all flocks in the Cooley Peninsula. In relation to flocks and herds in the surveillance zone in County Louth, the serosurveillance was required to commence under EU rules no sooner than 21 days after the preliminary cleansing and disinfection of the outbreak farm at Proleek. It was required to be completed before area restrictions in the Cooley Peninsula could be lifted on 30 April. Once this serosurveillance was completed, work began on the national serosurveillance with a view to completing as much as possible before 22 June, the date on which we were entitled to claim foot and mouth disease-free status in accordance with international criteria.
