Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (Hansard, 18 January 1990)

§ Mr. Ron Davies
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to his answer of 9 January,Official Report, column 572, if he will make a statement on the nature and scope of his new research programme into the vertical transmissibility of BSE.

§ Mr. Maclean
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him on 18 December 1989,Official Report, Col.30. This is a long-term research project and I have nothing further to add to my previous answer.

§ Mr. Ron Davies
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what compensation is paid in respect of cattle first identified as bovine spongiform encephalopathy sufferers in markets and abbatoirs; to whom such compensation is paid; and on how many occasions during each of the last four years such compensation has been paid.

§ Mr. Maclean
Compensation is paid in all cases to the owners of cattle slaughtered at the Ministry's behest in accordance with statutory requirements. Details of 407W individual payments are not held centrally. Animals which have been moved for slaughter from a farm before BSE is suspected are valued as barren animals and no allowance is made for any loss of condition due to BSE or other cause. Such valuation is usually lower than if the same animal had been valued as a BSE suspect on the farm.

§ Mr. Batiste
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he has any evidence of cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy occurring in animals too young to have been exposed to infected feed.

§ Mr. Gummer
No. I am not aware of a single case of BSE in an animal too young to have been exposed to feed containing ruminant protein material. Cases can be expected to occur for several years to come; this is not because the infection is spreading or because of a new source of infection, but because of the long period that can elapse before the symptoms emerge.

§ Dr. David Clark
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he is carrying out tests on offal from cattle thought to be free of bovine spongiform encephalopathy to establish whether the bovine spongiform encephalopathy agent is present in the tissue; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Gummer
Such tests would not be expected to yield a positive result in more than a tiny number of cases. It is a much better approach to ensure that the offal which might carry the BSE agent in apparently healthy animals do not enter the human food chain at all.