HC Deb 03 December 1975 vol 901 cc644-5W
Mr. Roderick

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will advise farmers on which types of dipping baths, sprays or showers are regarded as effective against sheep scab.

Mr. Strang

From the evidence currently available, we are not satisfied that sprays or showers are effective in the treatment and control of sheep scab. Any dipping bath in which the whole sheep can be thoroughly immersed in an approved dipping fluid and held there for not less than one minute, as required by the Sheep Scab Order 1938, as amended, is effective for this purpose.

Mr. Roderick

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what experiments have been carried out over the past 23 years to test the effectiveness of sheep showers as a precaution against sheep scab; what were the results of those experiments; and whether they were such as to justify the continuing payment of Government grant on the installation of showers.

Mr. Biffen

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will commission a study to determine the comparative merits of dipping and pressure showers as a means of combating sheep scab.

Mr. Strang

No experiments have been carried out in this country on the effectiveness of sheep showers as a precaution against sheep scab during the past 23 years. For 20 of those years the country was free of sheep scab.

In view of the resurgence of the disease, however, the Ministry's Central Veterinary Laboratory has already arranged for trials to be carried out, in conjunction with Wellcome Research Laboratories, on the effectiveness of the pressure shower as a means of combating sheep scab. It is hoped to announce the findings next spring. Previous experimental work done in 1949 on a shower similar in basic design to the showers currently available in this country proved it to be ineffective in the treatment of sheep scab. The effectiveness of immersion dipping has been conclusively demonstrated, both by experimental investigations and in practice, and requires no further study.

Sheep showers are useful for the control of external parasites such as ticks, keds, lice and blow fly, and payment of grant for work associated with the installation of sheep showers for this purpose is justified as being in the interests of good husbandry.