Mr. Alan W. WilliamsTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Clwyd, South (Mr. Jones), of 21 January 1999,Official Report, column 574, on BSE, if he will make a statement on the results to date of random sampling for BSE of cows slaughtered under the over thirty months scheme [91477]
§ Mr. RookerThe first stage of the survey is now complete. Between January and March a total of 4,163 heads were collected from cattle slaughtered in the Over Thirty Month Scheme. In accordance with SEACs wishes, the sample was not random but cattle that were five years of age or older were targeted. This was to ensure that we were sampling cattle that were most likely to be close to clinical onset and would therefore be positive by examination of brain tissue, if infected.
Of the brains removed, a total of 3,951 were in a suitable condition for examination. So far we only have results of histopathological examinations. These examinations have identified a total of 18 positive and 3,933 negative brains. We are not yet in a position to interpret the data fully because we await the results of two other diagnostic tests and a statistical analysis of the age structure of animals slaughtered under the OTM Scheme.