§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what information he has on the number of herds of cattle which have been restocked with calves from overseas BSE-free herds in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. SoamesThis information is not available. While Customs and Excise statistics record numbers of animals imported into the United Kingdom each year, no record is kept of the reason for importation.
§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what information he has on the outcome of experiments attempting to transfer spongiform encephalopathies from BSE-infected material to mink.
§ Mr. SoamesThe mink experiment is incomplete and no results are yet available.
§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many suspected BSE cases have been placed under restriction each week since 20 November 1992.
§ Mr. SoamesThe information requested for Great Britain is as follows:
Week ending Number of Form A's served 27 November 1992 840 4 December 1992 940 11 December 1992 955 18 December 1992 925 25 December 1992 816 1 January 1993 549 8 January 1993 1,062 15 January 1993 993 22 January 1993 987
§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what information he has on the possibility of diagnosing rapidly cattle infected by bovine spongiform encephalopathy but not yet clinically ill; and what plans he has to introduce surveys to quantify the extent of subclinical bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cows and cattle.
§ Mr. SoamesResearch aimed at developing a test for bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the live animal is in progress and remains a high priority, but no such test has yet been produced or is likely to be available in the near future. Surveys of the live cattle population for bovine spongiform encephalopathy cannot therefore be carried out.