Animal Welfare

Wednesday, 14 July 2021

Questions (487)

Sorca Clarke

Question:

487. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his attention has been drawn to potential animal welfare concerns with regard to increased prevalence of liver abscesses in feedlot cattle; and the data that is available with regard to the usage of antibiotics to treat such in Ireland. [38629/21]

View answer

Written answers

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

The Department does not have such information readily available indicating any such increased prevalence but will investigate further and revert to the Deputy.

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 42A

I refer to PQ 38629/21 concerning which the Minister undertook to further investigate and respond later, as the Department did not have information readily available on the matter.

I can now provide you with information from the Animal Health Ireland Beef Health Check programme which provides the following data that includes information on the apparent prevalence of liver abscesses in cattle slaughtered in Ireland over recent years.

Table 6: Abattoir apparent prevalence (%) of reported lesions

	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021*
Any evidence of liver fluke (%)	25.7	20.8	18.1	11.5	9.6	8.5
Live Fluke (%)	2.9	3.0	3.3	1.4	1.4	1.4
Fluke Damage (%)	22.8	17.8	14.8	10.2	8.3	7.1
Liver Abscess (%)	4.3	4.1	3.5	3.8	3.9	3.7
Pneumonia (%)	3.4	2.0	1.7	1.1	1.2	1.3

*Partial year to 16 April 2021

The data does not provide any breakdown as to the herd type or farm system associated with the herd of origin of the identified cases. The trendline suggests a reducing prevalence of liver abscess prevalence over recent years, rather than an increase.

Whilst any pathology of the liver will likely impact on animal performance, the degree of impact will vary depending on the extent of the lesion. The Department however does not have data in respect of any clinical impact or treatment records associated with the condition.