Poultry (Hansard, 13 December 1989)

§ Mr. Ron Davies
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the number of premises in each county of England requiring inspection under the provisions of the testing of poultry flocks orders.

§ Mr. Maclean
It is estimated that the number of flocks subject to the requirements of the Poultry Laying Flocks (Testing and Registration etc.) Order 1989 in England is in the region of 28,000. The order does not contain specific inspection requirements, but I expect inspections to be concentrated particularly on the larger flocks, estimated at around 4,000, which will be required to be registered with my Department. Under the Poultry Breeding Flocks and Hatcheries (Registration and Testing) Order 1989 an estimated 3,000 breeding flocks and 120 hatcheries in England will be visited by my officials. A breakdown of these figures by counties is not available.

§ Mr. Ron Davies
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the estimate of the additional costs being borne by the local authorities in their enforcement of the order relating to the registration and testing of poultry flocks.

§ Mr. Maclean
I do not have information on the resources which local authorities are allocating to work in connection with the two new orders on registration and testing of poultry flocks, which came into force on 26 October 1989.

§ Mr. Ralph Howell
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what scientific or veterinary studies have been carried out on the Government's slaughter policy for laying poultry; and whether any of these studies has produced evidence in favour of the policy.

§ Mr. Maclean
The evidence relating to salmonella infection in poultry flocks and eggs was reviewed by the House of Commons Agriculture Committee in its report of 28 February 1989. The Committee concluded that in seeking to address the problem of the rise in salmonella690W food poisoning cases the Government were right to make egg production the first focus of attention. In reaching this conclusion the Committee referred to the routes by which eggs may become infected via infected flocks, through faecal contamination and transovarian transmission, and welcomed the Government's announcement of the compulsory slaughter policy for poultry flocks. It is too early to reach definite conclusions about the effectiveness of this policy, but it is clear that the removal of infected flocks is helping to reduce the risk of salmonella infection in humans.