Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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779. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 224 of 12 October 2022, if officials in his Department conducted any tests or examinations in relation to swan mortalities at a location (details supplied) which may provide insight with regard the cause of mortality, other than ruling out avian influenza; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53509/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy may be aware, the swans in question were submitted to my Department under its Avian Influenza (AI) Surveillance Programme, a year-round programme which acts as an early warning system for the presence of AI in our wild bird population. The aim of the programme is to inform the Department’s risk assessment of the threat posed by the AI virus to poultry and captive birds.

It is not within my Department's scope, nor dose it have the available resources, to conduct full Post-Mortem examinations to investigate the ultimate cause of death of all dead wild birds submitted through the AI Surveillance Programme. It is policy within the laboratory that for Avian Influenza suspects, no further work is carried out on a carcass or samples unless requested and until a negative AI result is obtained.

This is a Health & Safety measure for the protection of staff. Positive results are reported to the National Disease Control Centre, positive and negative results are reported to the submitter. In wild birds, where an AI result is negative and there is a high mortality cohort, the Department's laboratories are available to assist on request from the submitting agency.