Fury spreads over laboratory transfers
Some Cork farmers are still unhappy to see DVO offices moving from the city to Fermoy, while Macroom gets the Regional Veterinary Laboratory and other veterinary services, instead of the DVO offices, which were proposed for Macroom in the Government's decentralisation plan.
But the domino effect has spread to the mid-West, which is to lose its Regional Veterinary Laboratory at Knockalisheen, near Limerick.
IFA National Council member David Thompson said that the Department's plan to close Knockalisheen and decentralise to Macroom, having already closed the Regional Veterinary Laboratory at Athlone, was "disgraceful".
"We need the service of this lab for post mortems on dead animals.
"They have given a good service to vets and farmers in the past, and it is essential that this is maintained.
"If there are unexplained losses on farms, it is necessary to have fast diagnosis, and if we lose the lab at Knockalisheen, we will be without a service in the area", he said.
"The nearest Department veterinary lab will be at Macroom, Co Cork. We are expected to take our dead animals or foetuses to Macroom for a post mortem, but they don't seem to realise that it is a three hour drive from East Limerick and farmers simply have not got the time at the busy time of the year when they need the service most", he said.
Mr Thompson said that farmers in the midlands who used the services provided by the lab at Athlone are now being asked to go to the lab at Sligo, which is posing major problems for them.
Limerick IFA supported his call for the retention of the lab near Limerick.
