Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 582: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food further to Parliamentary Question No. 465 of 29 October 2008, if research is being carried out into investigating the significant reservoir of tuberculosis infection in wildlife, other than badgers. [39658/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL) of my Department routinely monitors TB in wild or domestic species submitted to it and, in recent years, TB has been diagnosed in farmed Alpaca, goats, domestic sheep and in wild species. However, in the majority of wild species where TB has occasionally been detected, such as rabbits, rats and foxes, these animals are considered to be merely incidental or dead-end rather than disease maintenance hosts. With regard to deer, in addition to monitoring the outcome of routine veterinary examination of wild deer carcasses intended for human consumption, my Department also specifically carries out on-going research into the incidence of TB in the wild deer. However, to date both the routine veterinary examination results and our research has shown a very low incidence of TB in the wild deer population (Sika and Dama dama), even when the deer concerned were deliberately selected from areas of the country with a high incidence of TB in the cattle population. In view of the foregoing, the bulk of research involving wildlife carried out by my Department relates to badgers, which do in fact act as a maintenance host for TB.