Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 185: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if she is satisfied that use of bonemeal in animal feeds has ended completely; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7239/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will recall, January 2001 saw the introduction by the EU of a total ban on the use of certain processed animal proteins, which includes mammalian meat and bonemeal, in the diets of farmed animals because of it being a probable cause of BSE. Ireland, in implementing this total ban and in recognition of the importance of the export trade, increased its level of sampling for processed animal proteins from 810 samples in 2000 to almost 3,500 in 2003 with that level maintained for 2004. This includes the sampling of all imported bulk consignments of feed materials, along with extensive sampling of compound feedstuffs and on farm sampling. Because of the importance attached to BSE, Ireland carries out significantly more testing and analysis of animal feed for the presence of processed animal proteins than the minimum indicated by the EU in their annual co-ordinated control programme.

While I cannot guarantee that traces of bone will not be detected in animal feed in the future, I am satisfied that, first, the controls operated by my Department are adequate to ensure that any contamination is detected at the earliest possible stage in the feed chain and, second, the feed industry and the farming community take every possible precaution to ensure that mammalian meat and bone meal does not enter the feed chain. This diligence is evidenced by the fact that of the 7,000 or so samples of feed material analysed by my Department over the last two years, mammalian bone fragments have been detected in only four consignments.