§ Baroness Carnegy of Lourasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they propose to take any further steps to deal with bovine spongiform encepalopathy.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Baroness Trumpington)Sir Richard Southwood's working party, in a second interim report, has made two recommendations on which my right honourable friend the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has decided to act straightaway. First the report has indicated that it is not at present possible to be wholly sure that rendering as currently practised would eliminate the bovine spongiform encepalopathy agent. The Minister therefore proposes to extend by one year—that is, until 31st December 1989—the current prohibition on the use of certain animal protein in feed for ruminants. The Minister would like to make it clear that the prohibition would have to continue thereafter unless processing methods which are sufficient to destroy the causal agent have been identified and are widely available.
Secondly, the working party has also advised that, although in its view the transmission of bovine spongiform encepalopathy via milk is very unlikely, it would be prudent to ensure that milk from animals suspected of having bovine spongiform encepalopathy is destroyed. In fact little or no milk is produced from such animals. As a precautionary measure, however, my right honourable friend the Minister will be making an order prohibiting the sale or use of such milk for human or animal consumption except for the feeding of the cow's own calf.