Scrapie (Hansard, 12 June 1990)

Mr. Alan W. Williams
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether there is any evidence of the scrapie agent being present in sheep milk.

§ Mr. Maclean
No transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, including sheep scrapie, has been shown to transmit through milk. Scientific studies on scrapie have shown that the agent is not found in milk.

Mr. Alan W. Williams
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what information he has on the frequency of infections by(a) the scrapie agent in the muscle (meat) of scrapie-affected sheep and (b) the BSE agent in the muscle (meat) of BSE-affected cows.

§ Mr. Maclean
Scientific studies have shown that the scrapie agent is not found in the muscle (meat) of sheep naturally affected by scrapie. By analogy with scrapie, a very similar disease to BSE, the BSE agent is not expected to be found in the muscle of affected animals. Studies are nevertheless under way to confirm this.

Mr. Alan W. Williams
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will provide a 79W summary of the results of any research work on whether the scrapie agent can be vertically transmitted by an infected ram.

§ Mr. Maclean
There has been much work carried out in this area, all of which has shown that the scrapie agent is not found in the reproductive organs or semen of scrapie-infected rams.

Mr. Alan W. Williams
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if there is any restriction on the use for human consumption of sheep meat and offals including those from scrapie-infected sheep.

§ Mr. Maclean
No specific controls apply since scrapie is not a risk to human health.