§ Mr. Will Griffithsasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will now state the results of his inquiries into the origin of salmon disease in the Irish Republic.
§ Mr. HoyI am informed that extensive tests which the authorities have carried out at the Waterville fish farm and on fodder fish elsewhere have disclosed no grounds for believing that the farm is responsible for the disease. The cause of the disease has not yet been established, but a leading American authority has stated that he has not found among infected salmon in Ireland the particular organism which is responsible for columnaris disease in open waters and in a number of fish hatcheries in America; neither has that organism been isolated from stocks of rainbow trout or from fodder fish used in the Waterville fish farm.
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