Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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Question 182: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the reason a farmer gets listed for contiguous testing; the justifications there are for this; if this testing is compulsory; the restrictions that are imposed on such farmers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27829/11]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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A farmer may be listed for a contiguous test if his or her herd is identified as being contiguous to infective fragments of a high-risk TB breakdown. The purpose of the contiguous herd test is to prevent and control the spread of TB from herds contiguous to a TB breakdown to herds that are otherwise clear. This test is compulsory. Under existing arrangements, following the disclosure of reactors in a herd and the subsequent categorisation of the herd as high-risk, notices are issued to those herds contiguous to the infected fragment and a contiguous testing programme is undertaken in those herds, provided that the herd has not been tested in the previous four months. Currently, such herds are free to trade until the test commences. However, experience has shown that a significant number of animals from such herds move to other clear herds before the test is conducted and introduce TB into those herds. In view of this and in line with my Department's policy of confining the disease to the herds where it is detected, my Department intends to impose a temporary trade restriction on holdings contiguous to a herd in which TB has been disclosed in the case of high risk breakdowns. In such cases, trading status would be immediately restored once the herd passes the contiguous test.