Animal Diseases
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-29
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Martin Kenny (SF), Sligo-Leitrim

I thank the Minister. I want to follow up a little on this. Obviously, these are animals that probably got infected last summer. This will concern many in the agricultural community. Does this mean there are animals on a lot of farms around the country that contracted it last summer but it was not identified, they presented no symptoms and it will only be when they go to the factory and a test is done that it will be found? This is a big concern I have learned about this morning from the Minister. I was not aware of that before now, and I am sure a lot of people were not either.
With regard to the spreading of the disease, we are in cold weather now but climate change is probably at the root of a lot of this. With the weather getting warmer, we will see a lot more of these diseases, which have probably been confined to hotter climates, starting to move up. This will be an issue as we move forward. We could get a couple of weeks in March when temperatures are 15°C or 16°C. What will happen then? That is the issue we need to focus on and it is where the vaccine comes into play.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:34+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-29