Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 26 February 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

TB Eradication Programme: Discussion

Photo of Jackie CahillJackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Mr. Murphy for his presentation. We have had a very detailed discussion on TB. I do not have much else to say on the matter. I see that there is a control programme for Johne's disease. I have serious concerns about this control programme. I refer to the tests we talked about earlier and the practice of leaving reactor animals on farms. I have no confidence in our current test for Johne's disease. I accept that putting a code of practice in place at farm level can greatly reduce the level of the disease. In order to control the number of animals affected, however, we had better gauge the level present in a herd. The test does not stand up to scrutiny at all. I refer also to the number of false positive results. The accuracy of the testing for Johne's disease is a serious issue. We have to get serious about reducing the level. I accept that the code of practice at farm level can improve the situation.

The ownership of veterinary practices is a subject we have covered on a number of occasions here. It has been 12 months since we discussed it. I would like the witnesses' views the current situation regarding corporate ownership. Have practices been bought by corporate entities? I fully agree with the bullet points Mr. Murphy has outlined. Corporate ownership definitely will not improve services in the less viable areas. There will definitely be cherry-picking of the most profitable practices. Where does this stand at the moment? At the time, many questions were asked at this committee about whether it is legally possible for veterinary practices to go into corporate ownership. How has this progressed? Does Veterinary Ireland have comments or suggestions on what could be done? The topic that jumps out from Mr. Murphy's presentation is corporate ownership. We have discussed this at length on three or four occasions and I would like an update on it.

Animal Health Ireland has definitely provided a forum for focusing on different diseases. I am repeating myself, but the BVD eradication programme definitely left farmers with a sour taste due to the time it is taking to get rid of a disease whose elimination should have been fairly straightforward. I accept that the soft options taken have definitely added to the length of this eradication. If we are going to get serious about diseases, we cannot allow reactor animals to stay on farms when they are clearly identified. That practice was absolutely ridiculous. The point on somatic cell count is well made. We have made huge progress on it.

The other thing I would like to raise is the use of intramammary antibiotics on farms. There is a lot of talk of severely restricting this in the future. I would like our guests' views. Is our animal health sufficiently advanced where mastitis is concerned that we can afford to reduce use of intramammary antibiotics or even eliminate it? Would that have a spillover effect on somatic cell count? It has been a tool that farmers have used for generations at this stage and it has worked extremely well. There is definitely a consumer reaction to the use of antibiotics at farm level. What would be the impact of restricting usage of intramammary antibiotics on dairy farms?