Eighth Meeting of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Animal Health and Welfare

Date:10th May 2016

Venue:Agriculture House 5 West

Attendees

Chair:Colm Gaynor

Members:Alison Hanlon, Laura Boyle, Jeff Connell, Donagh Berry, Cliona O’Farrelly, Stephen Gordon, John Magee, Donal Murphy,Michael Gunn, David Graham, Simon More.

DAFM:Martin Blake (CVO), Liam Barry, Eoin Ryan, Hazel Sheridan.

Secretary:Niamh Cunningham

Apologies:

  1. Minutes of the last meeting and matters arising.

The Minutes of last meeting agreed without amendment.

  1. Request from the Department for the advice of the Committee on whether “electro-ejaculation” involves interference with the sensitive tissue of an animal (Continuation).

The matter was further discussed with a view to bringing to a conclusion and the issue of recommendations to DAFM.

A number of issues were highlighted for discussion

  • Whether the procedure should be restricted to the veterinary profession. It was reported that in the UK only vets perform this procedure.
  • The necessity for accredited training and licensing of the procedure.
  • Based on research, segmented ventral probes were considered to be the best type to be used as they cause less pain and discomfort.
  • Transrectal massage was also highly useful providing ejaculation in 90% of bulls and 95% of young livestock. The negative aspect was that whilst transrectal massage does shorten the procedure, it requires 2 people and the sample is not as good as the area may become contaminated. It might be recommendedfor use prior to inserting the ejaculator.
  • Although research demonstrates that it is a painful procedure, durationof application is very important too, therefore as transrectal massage shortens the procedure it might be a good technique to use.
  • The consensus was that there was no doubt that there is a certain amount of pain involved and that the main issues are training, equipment and accreditation. It was stressed that pain management and welfare of the animal is very important and training, sound understanding of pain assessment and management is critical. Lidocaine and xylazine are acceptable on a case by case basis however the negatives with using epidural is the risk associated with the possibility of the animal going down.
  • The overall conclusion was that the procedure does cause interference with the sensitive tissue but to amelioratepain the most important factors are the operator, equipment, technique and facilities.It was suggested that more research is probably needed into the matter and that perhaps bulls should be mentioned in the recommendation.
  • Chairman concluded that the main points are that it is painful however training, accreditation, equipment and facilities all play a major part.
  1. Presentation from Eoin Ryan on the role of pigs in the transmission of Hepatitis E.

Eoin gave an overall presentation on the role of pigs in the transmission of Hepatitis E. A brief discussion followed wherein Jeff Connell reported that based upon results generated at the NVRL, human cases of HEV infection in Ireland does not appear to be significantly lower that the UK. It was also noted that males over 50 are most at risk of acute HEV infection. In Ireland all blood donations are screened by HEV NAT whereas in the UK are more restrictive HEV NAT screening program is in operation.

  1. Presentation from Hazel Sheridan on current developments (in particular surveillance and other policy developments) with respect to both on-farm antimicrobial usage and antimicrobial resistance.

Hazel gave a detailed presentation on current developments with respect to both on-farm antimicrobial usage and antimicrobial resistance. A discussion followed whereby Simon More stated that some statistics may be misleading as you cannot compare countries with unlike animal populations i.e. Denmark is mainly pigs whereas Ireland is mainly cows. Teagasc reported that research is in progress and they have interviewed approx 30 pig farmers.Martin Blake reported that the Pig Committee have produced a report which showed problems with health in the pig industry.

  1. Discussion on the future role of the Committee (at the request of Clíona O’Farrelly)

There was avery brief discussion on this matter and it was agreed that it will be on the agenda for the next meeting.

  1. A.O.B.

Martin Blake informed the Committee about the Lobbying Act which was introduced in September 2015. He explained that published submissions i.e. Communications requested by a public service body and published by it are exempt from the Lobbying Act. Committees such as this, may, provided the committee adheres to certain transparency criteria, operate under a Transparency Code which would mean that members would not be required to make a declaration under the Act. The Committee agreed to operate in accordance with the Transparency Code.

Colm Gaynor thanked all present and stated that the date of the next meeting would be November/December.