Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 November 2020
1540. Deputy Joe O'Brien asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason a record of premature deaths in the pig industry is not kept by his Department; the number of inspections that are typically made to each pig farm per annum; if these are unannounced visits; and the reason there are no figures available for the age of pigs which are exported live. [33681/20]
View answerKeepers are required to keep their own records regarding on farm mortalities and this requirement is checked by Departmental staff during animal welfare inspections. However, specific data on the numbers of pigs that die on farm is not routinely collected by my Department.
Pig farms are subject to inspections by officials from my Department for a variety of reasons including for animal health and welfare, feed, antimicrobial usage and others. No typical frequencies by farm are available since many inspections are determined on a risk basis. Some but not all inspections are unannounced.
Overall data is available for all live pig exports. However, the tagging and identification system for pigs is such that specific dates of birth are not attributable to individual pigs.
