HC Deb 21 November 2002 vol 394 cc782-4
15. Mr. Huw Edwards (Monmouth)

If she will make a statement on levels of cases of bovine TB. [81220]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr. Elliot Morley)

The number of new TB herd incidents recorded for Great Britain between 1 January and 30 September 2002 stands at just under 2,300, of which 417 are in Wales. That includes confirmed, unconfirmed and unclassified incidents.

Mr. Edwards

In Monmouthshire, there have been 90 suspected cases, of which a third have already been confirmed. That causes considerable frustration to livestock farmers, who are affected by the increased costs of movement restrictions. Will my hon. Friend assure us that every effort is being made to resolve the crisis? When will the Krebs trials be completed and a vaccine developed?

Mr. Morley

I understand my hon. Friend's anxiety about bovine TB; we take it seriously. He knows that we recently allocated an additional £3 million to catch up with the backlog of testing that resulted from the foot-and-mouth outbreak. Testing was, of course, impossible then. The work has distorted the outbreak figures because we are testing in the most high risk areas first, and the figures that we get will not be representative of the spread and increase in bovine TB. Nevertheless, there is no room for complacency.

My hon. Friend knows that I recently announced a package of measures about changes in movement control. They are designed to help farmers who are under restriction because of TB.

Mr. Roy Beggs (East Antrim)

Is there any correlation between the increase in bovine TB and that in human TB?

There is a perception that badgers contribute to the spread of bovine TB. What analysis has been undertaken to determine whether badgers play a part in spreading the terrible disease?

Mr. Morley

The hon. Gentleman is right about the latter point. There has been a long-running debate about the link between badgers and bovine TB. It has gone on for approximately 20 years. The Krebs experiment is a five-year programme designed to consider the link and ascertain its importance once and for all. It is an important experiment that we must see through to completion.

There are two strains of TB—bovine and human. Human TB is therefore a different strain. The increase in it is due to the fact that people travel more widely. It is caused by global travel, not an increase in the cattle herd.