Bovine TB (Hansard, 1 April 2003)

§ Andrew George
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the(a) number and (b) proportion of cattle sold to stock farms culled out during the foot and mouth crisis in respect of which (i) their TB reactor test was overdue and (ii) the herd was subject to a movement restriction following the identification of TB infected cattle. [105966]

§ Mr. Morley
DEFRA is funding a study of the consequences of restocking, which makes the most of the unique research opportunities following the foot and mouth disease outbreak, and looks at TB in newly formed herds. However, the information sought, in the format requested, could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

§ Andrew George
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she will take to ensure that all current projects under the Government's bovine TB research programme will be made accessible to(a) non-governmental organisations and (b) the public by means of (i) a reference title for each project, (ii) a description of its purpose, (iii) its timescales and (iv) its cost. [105919]

§ Mr. Morley
The various strands of the Government's research programme both completed and on-going are available in exactly the format requested on Defra's website www2.defra.gov.uk/research/
Annual reports of the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB also include summary updates of Defra-funded TB research. These are available on the Defra website at www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/tb

§ Andrew George
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what her latest estimate is of the progress being made to(a) identify, (b) pilot and (c) conduct a wider implementation of a cattle vaccine to control the spread of bovine TB. [105920]

§ Mr. Morley
The development of a TB vaccine is one of the key objectives of our TB research programme. We are currently committed to research projects costing more than £5 million, designed to identify candidate vaccines, to experimentally vaccinate cattle and to develop a TB test which will differentiate vaccinated from infected animals. There are many steps in the process of identifying vaccine candidates, testing their efficacy and getting legislative clearance for the successful ones. The Chief Veterinary Officer has set up 639W a Vaccine Steering Group to identify the administrative and legal processes that would need to be followed to enable a vaccine to be used with minimum delay.
The Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB (ISG) has cautioned that vaccination is an effective policy option for controlling bovine tuberculosis only in the longer term. The Group is expected to report to Ministers in the first half of this year on the feasibility of pursuing a TB vaccination strategy for cattle or wildlife.