Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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103. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the percentage of samples taken at slaughter plants from bovine herds in counties Roscommon and Galway in 2017 and 2018 that have shown evidence of tuberculosis after analysis at the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13186/19]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The information requested by the Deputy is provided below.

Abattoir surveillance is an important aspect of the TB Programme. All healthy TB-clear animals that are slaughtered in Ireland are examined for evidence of TB infection at post mortem. If an abcess-like lesion is suspected of being TB, it is sent for analysis in the laboratory. Nationally, in 2017, 3,564 animals were a suspect slaughterhouse case of which 1,603 were confirmed as TB (45%).

When a herd is confirmed as having had TB, it must undergo 2 clear TB tests, at 60 day intervals, as per EU directive 64/432. The first TB test following a confirmed slaughterhouse case is 11 times more likely to have reactors than the annual round test and it had a positive rate of approximately 14.5% in 2017 and 2018.