§ Mr. Ron DaviesTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the result of the laboratory test for spongiform ence-phalopathy carried out on the antelope calf which died at London zoo on 12 November.
§ Mr. Gummer[pursuant to his reply, 28 November 1990, c. 441]: The examination of the brain tissue of the greater kudu put down at London zoo on 13 November has been carried out by the central veterinary laboratory and a spongiform encephalopathy has been confirmed.
The animal was born in April 1989 and was the offspring of a greater kudu in which a similar encephalopathy was confirmed in August 1989. Investigations into the cause of the disease in this kudu are continuing.