Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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517. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if it is possible to reduce the lock up period of herds suspected of being infected with tuberculosis by the expeditious development of cultures to determine their status; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31366/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Herds containing animals in which tuberculosis is suspected at post-mortem examination are restricted in accordance with Directive 64/432/EEC which requires that “Appropriate post-mortem, laboratory and epidemiological examinations shall be carried out on the carcase of the suspect animal. The status of the herd will remain suspended until such time as all laboratory examinations have been completed”. These examinations can include culturing of the suspect samples. In practice, it is not always necessary to proceed to the “culture” stage and, using figures from 2014, an histopathological examination in the laboratory was sufficient to confirm TB in 54.5% of lesions and the herdowner was informed that his herd remained restricted as required by the Directive. In 22.4% of submissions, histopathological evidence was sufficient to determine that the suspect lesion clearly was not a tuberculous granuloma or was due to something other than M.bovis and, in these cases, the restriction was lifted and the herd was de-restricted (normally with 3-weeks of the detection of the TB-suspect lesion). In less straightforward cases, accounting for about 23% of cases, where histopathology does not suffice to make a final determination of the TB-status, the samples must be cultured. However, M.bovis is a particularly fastidious and slow growing organism in the laboratory and it can take up to 10 weeks from the time of slaughter of the animal until final culture results are available in conformity with OIE requirements.

My Department makes every effort to ensure that the culturing process in the laboratory is completed as expeditiously as possible in order to ensure that herds are not restricted for longer than necessary.