HL Deb 07 July 1964 vol 259 cc1005-6WA
LORD RUSSELL OF LIVERPOOL

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they are aware that certain supplies of a brand of Newcastle disease (fowl pest) vaccine approved and subsidised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food have recently been found to be below standard, and what steps they propose to take to ensure that all dead vaccine against fowl pest supplied by the Ministry is tested before it is placed on the market.

THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD (LORD ST. OSWALD)

Her Majesty's Government have no evidence of inadequate protection being given by particular supplies of vaccine.

No make of vaccine is accepted for issue under the Ministry's scheme for the provision of subsidised fowl pest vaccine unless samples have first passed rigorous tests for safety and potency in the Ministry's Central Veterinary Laboratory. Each individual batch of vaccine must be tested by the manufacturers before it is supplied to the Ministry, and the results of these tests (indicating that the batch is up to standard) must be made available to the Ministry.

Vaccine supplied to the Ministry is subject to random check tests in the Ministry's laboratories. When a check test shows that a particular batch is not up to standard the Ministry requires its withdrawal by the manufacturer concerned. Check tests early in 1963 revealed that two batches of vaccine (from two manufacturers) were not up to standard, and the batches were accordingly withdrawn, but there have been no similar instances since then. Such partial failures occur from time to time with biological preparations, and it is for this reason that check testing of therapeutic substances is carried out Although a batch may not come up to the Ministry's standards, and therefore he withdrawn, it does not follow that it would not give adequate protection under average field conditions as the potency standard specified is considerably higher than is actually necessary. It would be impracticable for every batch of vaccine to be tested by the Ministry.