§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she will to make a further announcement about a vaccine for bovine TB; and if she will make a statement. [53247]
§ Margaret Beckett[holding answer 29 April 2002]: TB in cattle is one of the most difficult animal health problems we face and the increase in its incidence is continuing to give considerable concern. The Government have, with advice from the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB (ISG), put in place a wide-ranging research programme to tackle the disease. An important element of the programme is vaccine research on which the Government are spending £1.4 million annually. Although the sequencing of the "M. bovis" genome announced recently is an important step forward, the ISG has cautioned that it is likely to be 10 years or so before a successful vaccine is found.
§ Mr. BreedTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many farms have had animal movement restriction orders placed on them due to bovine TB in each year since 1980. [53760]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 2 May 2002]: Data on the number of herds under restriction each year is available only from 1996. Data from ealier years could not be collated except at disproportionate cost. 51W
Number of herds under restriction 1996 1,603 1997 1,657 1998 2,109 1999 2,400 2000 2,516 2001 1,731 Notes:
- 1. Data from 1996 to 2001 taken from DEFRA website www.defra.gov.uk. Figures from 1999 are provisional.
- 2. Data for 2001 are not comparable with other years. During the outbreak of foot and mouth disease, TB testing was significantly reduced.
§ Mr. GrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the latest research she has commissioned on the linkage between bovine TB and badgers. [53910]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 2 May 2002]: The Government have, with advice from the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB (ISG), put in place a wide-ranging research programme into bovine TB. The programme is described in the ISG's reports which are available on DEFRA's website at http://defraweb/animal/tb/.
An important part of the research programme is the badger field trial which recommenced from 1 May 2002. The trial is designed to evaluate, once and for all, the extent to which badgers contribute to cattle TB and the effects of badger culling on the incidence of the disease. It will provide data on the prevalence of TB in badgers and the spatial distribution of infected badgers and social groups, its relationship to population density, social group size and structure, geographical and physical environmental factors and, most importantly, the spatial relationship between TB in cattle and badgers.
§ Mr. GrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the average interval was between tests for TB in dairy cattle over the last 12 months; what the longest time recorded was; and what the optimum is. [53909]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 2 May 2002]: The information requested is not available except at undue cost.
Routine bovine TB test frequencies for cattle herds are set at the parish level. Parishes with historically higher numbers of confirmed incidents of bovine TB are placed on annual or biennial test regimes. Parishes with low or no disclosed incidents of bovine TB have a test frequency set at once every three or four years. Dairy herds in England and Wales retailing raw milk or supplying raw milk for the manufacture of unpasteurised dairy products are subjected to annual TB testing regardless of the default testing interval for the parish in which they are located.
In addition herds disclosed as having incidents of bovine TB undergo more frequent testing to check that infection has been cleared so that movement restrictions can be lifted. Further tests are carried out at 6 and 12 months after the removal of movement restrictions to 52W check for recrudescence. If no further TB incidents are reported during this period, the herds return to the default frequency of testing set for the parish.
TB testing was heavily disrupted during the foot and mouth disease outbreak and a significant backlog of overdue tests has built up, equivalent to a quarter of all GB herds. This is being tackled by the state veterinary service.
§ Mrs. Ann WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many herds of cattle were overdue their six or 12-month test for bovine TB in each of the last 12 months; how many herds are overdue their six or 12-month test for bovine TB; when the backlog of bovine TB testing will be cleared; and if she will make a statement. [54492]
§ Mr. MorleyRaw data on overdue six and twelve month bovine TB tests are only available from December 2001, when testing resumed after the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak. The figures for December 2001 to March 2002 are set out as follows:
Month Overdue 6–12 month bovine TB tests December 2001 1,369 January 2002 1,289 February 2002 1,261 March 2002 1,077 We cannot say yet when the backlog of overdue TB tests will be cleared.