Blue-ear Disease (Hansard, 14 June 1991)

§ Dr. David Clark
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food under what circumstances he would issue licences for the movement of pigs which have been subject to movement restrictions due to blue-ear disease; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Gummer
I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Torridge and Devon, West (Miss Nicholson) on 13 June 1991.

§ Dr. David Clark
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many licences he has issued for the movement of pigs, giving the locations, date and number of pigs affected in each case from farms which have been subject to movement restrictions due to blue-ear disease; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Gummer
Up to the 14 June 735 movement licences have been issued. The rest of the information is not held centrally.

§ Dr. David Clark
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish the names of the farms which have been subject to movement restrictions as a result of blue-ear disease; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Gummer
It is not normal practice to release this information.

§ Dr. David Clark
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many pigs out of the total infected with blue-ear disease have died as a result of the infection; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Gummer
The nature of the disease means that it is impossible to be precise about the number of deaths. One of the symptoms of the infection is an increase in the number of still births and abortions but the number of deaths among adult animals is very small.