Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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Question 509: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to reduce by a serious cull the number of deer here at present in view of the increase in TB (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34379/11]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Far from experiencing an increase in the incidence of TB in cattle herds, the incidence of TB in cattle is the lowest recorded since the commencement of the programme in the 1950's. Herd incidence has fallen from 7.5% in 2000 to 4.6% last year and reactor numbers in 2010 were, at 20,200, about 50% lower than ten years ago. Both reactor numbers and herd incidence have continued to fall in 2011 and it is likely that reactor numbers will fall below 20,000 this year. This means that, at the end of this year, we will have seen 3 consecutive years of very low disease levels and my Department is hopeful that the disease will remain a close to these levels into the future.

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. 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. A low incidence of TB in wild deer does not mean that no deer will be detected as infected and finding a single deer badly infected with TB would not be unusual, particularly since a deer badly infected with TB would be more easily killed or die where it might be found and thus such deer do not reflect the overall incidence in the population.

Responsibility for management of the national deer herd is the responsibility of the NPWS. Deer are not a protected species and can be culled under licence issued by that body to local gun clubs and/or farmers. Accordingly, a cull for the purpose of reduction in numbers in a locality where they may be causing problems is not the responsibility of and does not need the participation of my Department.