Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)
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Question 505: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the overall cost of the tuberculosis programme to the State including an itemisation on the farmer compensation, livestock buy-out, veterinary administration, farm inspection, agricultural officers' expenses and badger cull; the level of TB disease reactor occurrence in Ireland, France, Italy and Germany per 100,000 animals; the number of these reactor animals here which test positive at post-mortem level for TB; the benefits of testing the national herd for TB in view of the fact that the produce is deemed safe to enter the food chain in any account; the savings to the Exchequer and for the national herd if Ireland moved to a three-yearly programme instead of the current annual programme in view of the fact that other European countries only test their national herds on a three-year basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40994/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The information sought by the Deputy is not readily available in all of the detail requested and, insofar as it is available, 2006 is the most recent year for which detailed information can be provided in the time available.

The total cost of the TB programme in 2006 was approximately €70 million, of which some €33.8 million related to staff costs. A specific figure for the cost of farm inspection, which includes epidemiological investigations as well as visits by agricultural officers, is not available. However, the cost of travel and subsistence, most of which relates to visits to farms by veterinarians and agricultural officers, amounted to €2.6m in 2006. Expenditure on compensation amounted to €16.6m, of which €13.3m related to the On Farm Market Valuation Scheme. Expenditure on the badger removal strategy was €2.6m and the cost of tuberculin testing paid for by the Department amounted to €12.7m.

The number of TB reactors in Ireland in 2006 was 24,173 or 260 per 100,000 animals tested. Approximately 37.7% of reactor cattle slaughtered here had visible lesions observed at post mortem in 2006. In this connection, I should explain that a detailed post-mortem is not conducted on all animals removed as reactor; rather a fitness for human consumption examination in accordance with EU requirements is carried out at the slaughter plant. The position, therefore, is that many cattle exposed to and actually infected with TB are slaughtered as reactors without any visible lesions being observed. This is normal in view of the fact that the development of lesions occurs at the later stages of the disease process and where the examination for TB lesions is done as part of a routine slaughter at commercial "kill" speeds and where tuberculin testing is conducted at an annual frequency. In effect, the sensitivity of this examination is inherently significantly lower than the tuberculin test, which is the definitive TB test.

There is limited information available to me on the TB situation in the other countries in which the Deputy expressed interest. In particular, I have no information on the number of reactors which had visible lesions at slaughter. However, France and Germany and certain parts of Italy are officially free from bovine TB. From the information available to me, only 6 herds were reported in Germany as infected during 2006. There were 104 infected herds reported in France and Italy reported no infected herds in 2006.

The TB eradication programme in Ireland is substantially designed to facilitate trade under the rules of the EU trade Directive 64/432/EEC, which requires Member States where the herd incidence of bovine TB is higher than 1% to test all of the herds in the country annually. Accordingly, since the incidence of TB in Ireland is above 1%, it is not open to us to implement a three yearly testing programme. Most of the other European countries apart from the UK and Spain are free to test less frequently because they have a lower incidence of the disease. I should point out that the annual testing programme is necessary for the continued export of live cattle and the programme has facilitated the growth of the Irish cattle industry over the years by creating and enhancing export opportunities and by improving the productivity of cattle rearing. In effect, our export trade in cattle and beef, which was worth €1.8 billion in 2006, is dependent on the effective implementation of the programme. There are also public health benefits from implementing the programme.

While there has been a significant reduction in the incidence of bovine TB in Ireland over the past 10 years, progress in eradicating the disease in Ireland is severely impeded by the presence of TB infection in wildlife, particularly badgers. The Irish experience in this regard has been consistent with that of other countries, such as South Africa, New Zealand, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, where wildlife vectors also play a critical role in the maintenance of the disease in cattle. Infection in wildlife was not an issue in other EU member states, which have successfully eradicated the disease. The development of a vaccine for badgers is a prerequisite for the eradication of bovine tuberculosis in Ireland. My Department has just commenced a large-scale field trial of BCG to test the efficacy of a vaccine. However, any vaccine will not be available in the immediate future and the existing strategy will remain in place for some time. In the meantime, the existing programme, updated as appropriate in light of developments, will remain in place.

My Department continues to monitor and review the effectiveness and efficiency of the programme on an on-going basis with a view to the eventual eradication of the disease.