§ Mr. Wingfield Digbyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to what extent the tuberculosis eradication policy has resulted in a reduction in the number of carcases found to be affected with tuberculosis; and to what extent tuberculosis in animals is still a public health problem.
§ Mr. SoamesThe number of carcases found to be affected with tuberculosis has fallen dramatically and many Medical Officers of Health have made special mention of this in their annual220W reports. In some local authority districts a whole year has passed without tuberculosis being found in a single bovine carcase. In the 1940's it was common for 20 per cent. of adult cattle slaughtered to be affected. By 1957, the annual reports of Medical Officers of Health in England and Wales recorded an improvement to a level of only 7.3 per cent. of the carcases inspected. The records of adult cattle killed at 40 representative slaughterhouses in the year ending 30th June, 1963, including some un-attested cattle from the Irish Republic and some reactors to the tuberculin test, show only 0.3 per cent. of carcases found to be affected. I understand that the records in Scotland show a similar trend.
This great improvement is undoubtedly due to the tuberculosis eradication scheme and it is a source of great satisfaction that tuberculosis of animals is no longer the significant public health problem that it so recently was.