asked the Minister for Agriculture (1) whether treatment of warble fly infestation by oral administration of drugs has been successful in experiments conducted by his Department; and (2) whether he will have an experiment conducted in a selected area for the eradication of warble flies with a view to preventing their propagation, on lines similar to those employed for eradicating tsetse fly as reported in the annual report of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for 1956-57.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Eradication of Warble Flies.
Two experiments have been conducted by the Veterinary Research Laboratory on the use of an organic phosphorous insecticide administered orally for the destruction of warble fly larvae. For the first experiment the drug was only obtainable by the month of May, 1957, when the warble fly season was well advanced. This experiment showed that the drug was well tolerated at the recommended dosage and no toxic symptoms were observed in the test animals. The results of the second experiment which was initiated early in December will not be available until the end of the warble fly season—approximately July next.
As regards the second part of the question, I would prefer to concentrate for the present on the search for a cheap, reliable and safe insecticide for administration orally.
Would the Minister be good enough to consider personally the alternative outlined there, with his advisers, with a view to determining whether an experimental user of that procedure would not be justified in a restricted area?
I have discussed it already with some of my veterinary people and they have recommended this course and I think it is all right.
Would the Minister not consider it himself and in this case possibly tell his technicians that at least in a restricted area it would be worth while trying it?
My record for compulsion is such that I do not like the word any more.
May I forewarn the Minister that if he carries that spirit into his Department he will be a deplorable Minister?
I think I am aware of that danger already.
I thought the knowledge was confined to the Minister's neighbours.
According to my catechism, that covers a very wide field. I do not know how they brought in some of them.
United only in love for you.