John Perry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 476: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food her Department's policy in regard to the eradication of tuberculosis in deer farming; when a national herd test will be put in place to prevent the spreading of tuberculosis to other stock; when financial assistance will be made available to herd owners to compensate them for having to slaughter or replace animals; if her attention has been drawn to the fact that the only information available from her Department is on tuberculosis in deer in New Zealand; the assistance which will be made available to a person (details supplied) in County Sligo in regard to tuberculosis in a deer farm; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23734/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department operates an official bovine tuberculosis, TB, eradication programme through which farmers contribute by means of the payment of bovine disease levies on animals slaughtered and milk sold to co-operatives. In common with many other diseases my Department does not operate an official programme for the eradication of tuberculosis in farmed deer and therefore there is no compensation payable in respect of TB infected deer. There are no mandatory programmes at EU level dealing with the eradication of tuberculosis in deer. It is fair to say that most of the scientific publications concerning TB in deer originate in New Zealand, where deer farmers actively fund and participate in their TB eradication programme.

Advice on disease control measures and bio-security is available from the local Department district veterinary office, DVO, and the relevant Department regional veterinary research laboratory. The Department is aware that in some instances deer farmers have organised to pay for TB testing in their own herds through their private veterinary practitioner.

In the early 1990s, the Department offered a TB eradication programme to deer farmers on the basis that the programme would be self financing by the industry along the lines of the TB eradication programme for bovines. This programme would have required the registration of holdings with farmed deer and their individual identification. At that time the industry declined to participate in the programme on the terms offered by this Department. My Department will keep its policy in this area under review but has no immediate plans to introduce an official TB eradication programme for farmed deer.