Animal Diseases
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-19
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Martin Kenny (SF), Sligo-Leitrim

I appreciate that a lot of work has been done in respect of this, and that the Department is doing a lot of testing to try to ensure we detect the places where this has arisen. The Minister gave a list of counties where bluetongue has been detected. Are these antibodies that were a consequence of previous infections going back to last autumn or summer, or is any of this potentially a new spread of the disease? That is something we really need to get a handle on.
With regard to the symptoms, certainly, in the early cases that were detected, the animals were not displaying any symptoms, which makes it very difficult. We tell farmers to be vigilant and to do everything they possibly can to have good hygiene and good husbandry on their farms. However, if the animals are not displaying symptoms, it is very difficult for them to do that. I understand that in some of these cases, animals are starting to show more symptoms and they are getting sick. I would like to get an update on that.
If farmers are going to have to vaccinate animals, what is the cost of the vaccination programme to which the Minister referred going to be?
How quickly can it be rolled out? Is that in itself going to have an impact on our animal trade?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:45+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-19