asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the number of herds tested and the number of cattle tested expressed in numbers and as percentages of the national herd under the bovine TB eradication scheme for the 1986-87 round of testing.

Approximately 115,300 herd tests and some seven million animal tests, which are equivalent to 62.3 per cent and 100 per cent respectively of the national herd, were carried out during the 1986-87 bovine TB eradication programme just ended. These figures include some cases where the same herd was tested more than once during the round and this means that the number of individual herds and animals tested, for which precise figures are not readily available, would be somewhat lower.