§ Captain Kerbyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what were the tests undertaken on dead sheep in South-East England last month which provided the negative evidence for the 96W suspected fluoroacetate poisoning; and what was the precise cause of their death.
§ Mr. Scott-HopkinsIn agreement with the owner, one sheep was slaughtered at the Ministry's Investigation Centre at Wye, Kent, on 20th February last. No abnormalities were seen on post-mortem examination. Chemical tests designed to detect elevated citrate levels in tissues taken from this animal were carried out at the Central Veterinary Laboratory with negative results. There was therefore no evidence that it this animal had had access to any toxic organic fluorine compound. Other sheep, from this flock were reported to have died, but my officers were not consulted and there was no post-mortem examination of these animals. The cause of their deaths is therefore not known.