HC Deb 26 July 1978 vol 954 cc757-9W
Mr. Watkinson

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether the Government have completed their review of veterinary and genetic quality standards currently being applied to the approval of bulls for artificial insemination; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Strang

Yes. The broad conclusion reached by my right hon. Friends the Minister and the Secretary of State for Scotland and my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Wales is that veterinary controls and standards applied at present in the approval of artificial insemination bulls must continue with modifications introduced as necessary to meet changing disease patterns; but genetic quality controls should be relaxed to provide greater freedom to individual breeders provided certain prerequisites are satisfied.

The most important of these prerequisites is that there should be statutory requirements in respect of the information to be made available to potential purchasers of semen, by advertising or other means. The Agriculture Departments will shortly be consulting interested organisations about the form that such requirements might take. When the requirements have been introduced, which we think should be possible before the end of the year, my right hon. Friends will be prepared to make the following changes in the existing controls:

  1. (a) to remove the restriction on the number of herds in which the semen of young dairy bulls that fail to meet the standards of the official progeny testing scheme may be used, and to reduce the maximum number of straws permitted from 750 to 500 per bull;
  2. (b) to allow the distribution of up to 3,500 straws of semen from any mature dairy bull which does not satisfy departmental standards for breeding merit but for which a minimum amount of progeny test information—a weighting of five—is available;
  3. (c) to make adjustments to the semen distribution limits for other dairy bulls that meet departmental standards and to encourage proofs in a wider spread of herds;
  4. (d) to arrange for industry-based panels to consider, on appeal, whether mature dairy bulls which fail marginally to meet a qualifying standard for an additional semen distribution but have other outstanding attributes should be allowed the additional distribution.

My right hon. Friends consider it important that these revised arrangements be monitored closely so as to measure their effect on the national dairy herd. They also wish to see rapid progress made towards the introduction of a standardised system of assessment of the important genetic characteristics of all dairy bulls used for AI. To make progress towards these objectives, my right hon. Friends propose to set up a committee which would bring together representatives of the main AI interests—breeders, the AI organisations and farmers' unions —with independent scientific experts and officials of the Agriculture Departments. The committee would be responsible for monitoring the effect of the changes in controls and proposing such further changes as may be desirable, encouraging improvement in the system of genetic assessment, and advising generally on the breeding objectives for the national dairy herd.

No immediate changes are envisaged as far as beef bulls are concerned, but breed societies are being asked to encourage a more widespread use of AI in pedigree herds.

The authentication of parentage of all bulls by blood typing will be made mandatory before they are used in AI.

Details of the new limits and other arrangements are contained in a report by a working group of officials that met under the chairmanship of the director general of ADAS. The report will be published shortly: a summary of its conclusions and recommendations has been placed in the Library.