HL Deb 20 January 1998 vol 584 cc233-4WA
Lord Vinson

asked Her Majesty's Government:

  1. What was (a) the incidence of BSE in cattle under three years old during 1997 or the latest 12-month period for which figures are available;
  2. (b) the incidence of BSE or its equivalent in sheep under two years old during 1997 or the latest 12-month period for which figures are available;
  3. (c) the incidence of BSE or its equivalent in sheep over two years old for the period 1988-97 inclusive or the latest 10-year period for which figures are available.
[HL25]

The Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Lord Donoughue)

There have been no cases of BSE reported in cattle under three years old during 1997 which have subsequently been confirmed, although not all results for the year have been received from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency. There was, however, one case of BSE in a beef animal under three years old from a mixed herd reported in 1996, which was subsequently confirmed in 1997.

There is as yet no evidence that BSE is present in the national sheep flock. The naturally occurring BSE in sheep is scrapie.

Cases of scrapie have been formally recorded since 1993, when the disease became notifiable. The following table shows the numbers of cases confirmed in each year since 1993 and the numbers of cases which are recorded as over and under two years of age. In many cases the owner of an animal is unclear as to an animal's age; this is reflected in the final column of the table below.

Year Number of cases confirmed Number of cases in sheep over 2 years Number of cases in sheep under 2 years Number of cases where age has not been recorded
1993 328 273 2 53
1994 235 164 2 69
1995 254 123 5 126
1996 453 317 11 125
1997 '394 300 4 90

Provisional

It is not possible to express these figures as incidence in the absence of information on the numbers of animals in each of the age categories concerned.

Lord Vinson

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What grounds they have for believing that BSE or its equivalent in sheep may occur in sheep under three years old, given that no sheep of that age should be fed contaminated bonemeal. [HL26]

Lord Donoughue

Scrapie in sheep sustains itself in the flock by sheep to sheep transmission without exposure to contaminated feed. It has done so for hundreds of years. Some cases of scrapie do therefore occur in sheep at under three years of age, even though they have not been exposed to feed containing mammalian meat and bone meal.

It is possible that, if BSE is present in the national flock, it might behave the same way, but be clinically indistinguishable from scrapie. There is as yet no evidence that BSE is present in the national flock or that BSE can transmit from one sheep to another like scrapie but we are continuing to survey scrapie cases for BSE and are studying the possibility that BSE experimentally introduced into sheep could maintain itself in the flock as scrapie does.