Vol. 542 No. 5
134 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the cost of the tuberculosis and brucellosis testing programmes since its inception; the issues that were brought to his Department's attention since such programmes were put in place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24802/01]
Since the launch of the TB eradication scheme in 1954, and the brucellosis eradication scheme in 1966, the combined expenditure for both schemes has totalled £954 million excluding administration costs, up to the end of 2000. The receipts for the same period totalled £429 million leaving a net expenditure of £525 million.
The initial policy when the TB scheme was introduced in 1954 was to eradicate bovine TB from cattle herds and this still remains the objective. Significant progress was made in the earlier stages of the scheme but the programme has stalled, albeit, at a relatively low level of the disease. However, given the experience in the past 30 years there is a recognition that the incidence of the disease in wildlife is a major impediment and that further technological advances will be needed to achieve further progress. An important short-term objective is to ensure that the incidence of the disease is reduced to an acceptable minimum so that markets, in particular export markets, are not jeopardised and so that there is no serious threat to human health. These two objectives are being fully achieved.
Good progress was made in eradicating brucellosis in the initial 20 years of the programme up to 1986, but there were setbacks in the programme over the next decade. The programme to combat the disease was again stepped up in 1997 and significant progress has been made since in reducing the incidence of the disease with the number of herds restricted to date in 2001 being less than 50% of the corresponding period in 1998.
In the context of the PPF, a package of measures was agreed with the objectives of reducing the incidence of TB by 50% and of making significant progress towards eradicating brucellosis.
Question No. 135 answered with Question No. 129.
