Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 3 Mar 1998

Vol. 488 No. 1

Written Answers - ENFER Test.

Trevor Sargent

Ceist:

133 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if his attention has been drawn to any independent scientific tests carried out on the new ENFER BSE detection facility; if so, where and by whom it was tested; whether the facility has been tested and approved by veterinary medical experts or scientific advisers of his Department; and if it is guaranteed by his Department as a system fully capable of detecting in carcases all or any evidence or traces of BSE from initial infection to clinical stage of the disease. [5693/98]

Minister for Agriculture and Food (Mr. Walsh)

I am not aware of any independent scientific tests having been carried out in Ireland or elsewhere on the ENFER test. My Department has had an involvement with the development of the ENFER test to the extent of validating its detection of clinical cases and also those preclinical cases available to my Deparment which were detectable by conventional test methods. The test is a private commercial one.

While samples shown to be negative by conventional test methods were also subjected to ENFER tests with negative results, it should be noted that there is not, at this time, a validated test which guarantees the detection of evidence or traces of BSE from initial infection to the clinical stage of the disease.