Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 October 2020
788. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the percentage of cattle that go down with TB and are actually that are found to have it when slaughtered in the factory; and the uses made of the meat from those animals. [28190/20]
View answerWhen cattle are slaughtered as reactors under the TB eradication programme, it is because they have tested positive for infection with TB. In the past 12 months, 20,993 cattle have been slaughtered as reactors under the TB eradication programme, as they are deemed to be infected with the TB disease agent. The test specificity is estimated at 99.98%, meaning the number of false positives to the skin test is estimated at 1 animal in 5,000 tested.
Visual inspection of reactor carcases at post-mortem finds that, on average, approximately 30% of such reactors have visible lesions of tuberculosis, meaning the infection has progressed to a stage where the disease process has caused such significant tissue damage that it can be seen with the naked eye. If a reactor does not have visible disease lesions, it does not mean it is not infected; visual inspection cannot detect the presence of microscopic lesions and bacteria within the tissues of such animals.
Separately from the slaughter of TB reactors, all non-Tb reactor cattle routinely slaughtered in Ireland are subjected to a post-mortem veterinary inspection which includes surveillance for lesions suspected to be caused by TB. Each year, approximately 3,600 such suspect lesions are identified and of these, approximately 45% are subsequently found by laboratory testing to have been caused by TB. The herds from which those animals came are then subjected to follow-up testing to identify any other undetected infected cattle.
At Post Mortem following slaughter, the handling of any bovine found to have TB is prescribed in EU Commission Regulation 2019/627 and is followed in all Food Businesses. The procedure is that all meat from animals in which post-mortem inspection has revealed localised lesions, similar to tuberculoid lesions, in a number of organs or a number of areas of the carcase, are declared unfit for human consumption. However, where a tuberculoid lesion has been found in the lymph nodes of only one organ or part of the carcase, only the affected organ or part of the carcase and the associated lymph nodes are declared unfit for human consumption.
