Animal Diseases
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-19
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Martin Heydon (FG), Kildare South

Yes, exactly. We investigated the remaining animals in that herd and in the neighbouring herds within the radius of the farm. Some of them were found to be positive, in the sense that they had it previously. If it is the case that we find one that is positive in January or February, how we respond in January is very different from how we respond in July because an animal will only be infectious for about 60 days, so therefore they would not be infectious heading into the high-risk period and beyond. The first ten or 11 cases I am aware of - the majority - were all asymptomatic and were not displaying any symptoms.
On the point the Deputy makes around vaccines, that is a commercial decision for farmers. I took the timely step of approving vaccine use once the first case came into Northern Ireland. Before that, it was very much the case that we wanted to lock down and hold back in order to be able to identify it but once the vaccines were available it allowed suppliers to stock up. More than 1.1 million vaccines will be available for use this year.

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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