§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make scrapie a notifiable disease; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MacleanI have no plans to do so. The disease, which has been present in the national flock for well over two centuries, is endemic in a sheep population of over 10 million and there is no test in the live animal. Intensive study has shown that there is no epidemiological relationship between scrapie and the human encephalopathies.