HC Deb 13 May 1996 vol 277 cc376-7W
Sir Cranley Onslow

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many applications for a licence to shoot cormorants and saw-billed ducks were received by his Department in the year 1995–6; how many of these were refused; how many birds were licensed to be shot; and how many have been reported as having been shot. [28293]

Mrs. Browning

The information requested is set out in the table for the period 1 May 1995 to 31 March 1996:

suspect animals to make a clinical diagnosis. Animals subsequently confirmed by the Ministry's veterinary officer as being suspected of suffering from BSE will be slaughtered on farm and their carcase disposed of by incineration. Specified bovine material is not removed from these animals as the whole carcase goes for disposal.

We do not have details of the preferred method of disposal of BSE suspect cases in other EU member states. Details of SBO controls in other EU member states were given in my response to my hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury, (Mr. Key) on 29 April, Official Report, column, 413–14.

Dr. Strang

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list all recommendations made since 1986 by the scientific committees advising the Government on spongiform encephalopathies, which have not been fully implemented. [23199]

Mrs. Browning

[holding answer 28 March 1996]: There have been four reports published by the various advisory committees on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies since 1989.

Recommendations were made in both the "Report of the Working Party on Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (Southwood Report)" dated February 1989 and the "Interim Report (Tyrrell Report)" dated June 1989. The only recommendation made to Government which has not been implemented is a low-priority research recommendation for the survey of brains of cattle routinely sent for slaughter to monitor incidence of unrecognised infection, which was contained in the Tyrrell report. This recommendation was of course superseded by regulations which protected human health by the exclusion of specified bovine offals from the food chain.

The two later reports produced by the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee "Interim report on Research" dated April 1992 and the "Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies—A Summary of present Knowledge and Research" dated September 1994 contained no recommendations to Government. The interim report on research did, however, state that detailed examination of the relevant studies indicated that, in the Committee's view, there were no inappropriate overlaps; that all high-priority studies had been started, and that satisfactory progress had been made in implementing the recommendations of the interim report (Tyrrell report) (paragraph 4.1).

The committee has made a number of recommendations to Government on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies since the last set of published recommendations contained in the Tyrrell report were put to Government. The Government have acted swiftly to ensure that these recommendations were put in place with the minimum of delay.

Mr. Hinchliffe

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many BSE cases have been confirmed in animals aged less than 30 months old since 1988. [27978]

Mrs. Browning

Since 1986 and up to 3 May 1996, the number of BSE cases confirmed in animals less than 30 months in Great Britain is 80.

Mr. Hinchliffe

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what information he has evaluated on the distribution and timing of BSE infectivity in cattle before the final brain disease under farming conditions. [27979]

Mrs. Browning

All details on BSE infectivity have been published in the latest progress report. So far, from confirmed field cases, the BSE agent has been detected only in brain, cervical spinal cord, terminal spinal cord and retina. Under experimental conditions, infectivity has also been detected in the distal ileum of calves 18 months after challenge, but in no other tissues. Assays of tissues collected at later stages of that experiment are still in progress.

In the same study, CNS lesions were detected no more than three to four months before onset of clinical disease.

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