Written answers

Thursday, 26 November 2009

Department of Agriculture and Food

Animal Diseases

5:00 pm

Photo of Olivia MitchellOlivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 12: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the initiatives he will introduce to tackle the problem of bovine viral diarrhoea in cattle; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43618/09]

Photo of Brendan SmithBrendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will be aware that my Department has national disease control programmes in place to counter what are known as "regulated diseases" in the national herd, examples of which include TB & Brucellosis. We have made major progress in dealing with many of the regulated diseases - for example Ireland now has Brucellosis-Free status and the incidence of BSE continues to decline. Considerable progress has also been made in relation to eradication of bovine TB and Ireland is to the forefront of international efforts to achieve a practical solution to the problems presented by a wildlife population infected with TB.

Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) falls within the category known as "non-regulated diseases". While these diseases can be a significant issue at individual farm level resulting in reduced productivity, reduced profitability and impaired animal welfare, to date there has been no national approach to dealing with "non-regulated diseases".

In January this year, I launched the Animal Health Ireland (AHI) initiative. AHI is industry-led and driven and part-financed by industry with financial support from my Department. AHI aims to improve overall animal health standards thereby securing improved profitability for farmers and international competitiveness of Irish livestock products through a coordinated national approach to animal health. AHI will address the issue of "non-regulated" diseases and has already begun to address the problem of BVD on Irish farms.

My Department has no direct responsibility for the day to day activities of AHI. My commitment of funding to AHI is conditional on the results of its work being placed in the public domain so that the relevant interested parties, especially farmers and veterinary practitioners, can be kept informed and they can translate the results of its work into action to better control animal diseases, including BVD.

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