Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Question 886: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the number of tuberculosis reactor animals in each of the years 2001 to date; the number with visible lesions; the number of animals culled and the number found positive; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25119/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The following table sets out theinformation requested for 2001 to 2004. Corresponding figures for 2005 are not yet available.

Ireland's bovine tuberculosis eradication programme comprises a comprehensive surveillance effort where all herds are tested annually and additional risk-based testing is conducted in others, a proactive wildlife programme in the area of infective outbreaks, the routine application of gamma interferon assay in infected herds and full herd-test at six-monthly intervals post de-restriction in respect of these herds for a two year period. There has been sustained progress in reduction of the numbers of infected animals and herds over the last number of years and it is to be hoped that this progress will be maintained. Many animals exposed to and infected with bovine tuberculosis are slaughtered as reactor animals without detection of visible lesions. This is normal and to be expected where the examination is done as part of a routine slaughter at commercial "kill" speeds and conditions and where tuberculin testing is conducted at an annual frequency.

Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Question 887: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food her plans for the ram genotyping programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25120/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I recently announced a number of enhancements to the voluntary national genotype programme, NGP. These enhancements, which came into effect on 1 September and will continue until 18 November, are designed to encourage greater participation in the voluntary NGP and, particularly, to encourage the genotyping of rams in advance of the introduction of a compulsory breeding programme. As the overall objective of the NGP is to increase the level of resistance to scrapie among the Irish sheep flock by promoting the use of the most scrapie-resistant animals for breeding, the recently announced enhancements include the payment of a flat rate of compensation in respect of any ram which, when tested, is found to be one of those categories which are susceptible or highly susceptible to scrapie.

I am pleased that, since my announcement, the number of inquiries to my Department and the number of NGP applications issued have increased significantly and I am confident that the numbers of sheep which have been genotyped will rise significantly over the next couple of months. To date, in excess of 34,000 sheep have been genotyped under the NGP. My Department is working to finalise the terms of a compulsory breeding programme, which I expect will be introduced at an early date, and has been in discussions with sheep breed societies and farm bodies in this regard.