HC Deb 01 November 1993 vol 231 cc33-6W
Mr. Hinchliffe

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how procedures for isolating, monitoring and reporting BSE livestock suspects born after 18 July 1988 differ from those born prior to that date; and if she will make a statement.

Mr. Soames

Suspect cases of BSE reported in cattle born after 18 July 1988, when the ban on the use of ruminant protein in ruminant feed was introduced, is with all suspect BSE cases, are compulsorily slaughtered only when a confident clinical diagnosis of the presence of the disease can be made. Slaughter may be carried out sooner if necessary to prevent suffering: this affects compensation arrangements but not the way in which the case is handled and laboratory diagnosis carried out.

Particular care is taken in the clinical assessment of BSE suspects born after the feed ban because it was found, at an early stage, that more than 90 per cent. of such cases were negative on laboratory examination, compared with a negative rate of 15 per cent. for all cattle. In February 1992, Ministry field staff were therefore instructed that suspects born after the ban should not normally be slaughtered at the first visit, but that a further visit should be made, at least seven days later, to reassess the progress of the case. An earlier revisit was to be made if the owner reported that the animal had deteriorated, and immediate action was to be taken to protect the welfare of the suspect animal. This observation period allowed many of the suspects to return to normal, or an alternative diagnosis to be made and treatment given by the owner's veterinary surgeon. This change has resulted in an improvement in the negative rate in this group of animals from 90 per cent. in 1991 to 28 per cent. in 1993.

Animals which are suspected to have BSE do not have to be isolated except when calving.

Mr. Hinchliffe

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what information is available from the outcome of tests on mink to establish the potential for transferring BSE to this species.

Mr. Soames

Although mink have been shown to be susceptible to BSE in experimental studies using brain material from confirmed BSE cases, this does not relate to risk of transmission of the disease in the natural situation.

Mr. Hinchliffe

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food why specified offals excluded from the food chain in November 1989 did not include bone marrow, liver and kidney.

Mr. Soames

The specified bovine offals ban was introduced to remove from the food chain those tissues which, by analogy with natural scrapie in Suffolk sheep were most likely to contain the infective agent of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in significant quantities.

Bone marrow, liver and kidney were excluded as they show minimal or no detectable scrapie infectivity. Subsequent studies in mice with tissue from BSE-infected cattle have shown that only the brain and cervical spinal cord have any detectable infectivity. The BSE agent has not been detected in bone marrow, liver and kidney from cattle which were clinically affected with BSE.

The specified bovine offals ban has been endorsed by indpendent experts in this country, and by the scientific veterinary committee of the European Commission, the World Health Organisation and the Office International des Epizooties.

Mr. Hinchliffe

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) how many confirmed cases of BSE were reported between 1 January 1992 and 30 September 1992 from each county in England;

(2) how many confirmed cases of BSE were reported between 1 January 1992 and 30 September 1992 from each county in Scotland;

(3) how many confirmed cases of BSE were reported between 1 January 1992 and 30 September 1992 from each county in Wales.

Mr. Soames

The number of confirmed cases in Great Britain by county by date of notification of suspicion of bovine spongiform encephalopathy to the Ministry for the period requested is as follows:

Number of confirmed cases 1 January 1992 to 30 September 1992
Region and county Number
Eastern
Bedfordshire 77
Cambridgeshire 74
Essex 116
Hertfordshire 80
Lincolnshire 151
Norfolk 641
Northamptonshire 199
Suffolk 289
Midlands and Western
Cheshire 1,240
Derbyshire 687
Hereford and Worcestershire 442
Lancashire 958
Leicestershire 470

Region and county Number
Manchester 43
Merseyside 23
Nottinghamshire 156
Shropshire 678
Staffordshire 747
West Midlands 24
Warwickshire 227
Northern
Cleveland 29
Cumbria 866
Durham 128
Humberside 99
Northumberland 181
Tyne and Wear 7
Yorkshire North 1,109
Yorkshire South 85
Yorkshire West 142
Scotland
Borders 73
Central 27
Dumfries 379
Fife 38
Grampian 206
Highland 39
Lothian 31
Orkney 16
Shetland 1
Strathclyde 311
Tayside 82
South Eastern
Berkshire 146
Buckinghamshire 204
Hampshire 566
Isle of Wight 127
Kent 304
London 18
Oxfordshire 355
Surrey 212
Sussex East 293
Sussex West 512
South Western
Avon 498
Cornwall 1,832
Devon 2,467
Dorset 1,480
Gloucestershire 519
Somerset 2,076
Wiltshire 1,127
Wales
Clwyd 401
Dyfed 1,477
Glamorgan Mid 29
Glamorgan South 84
Glamorgan West 25
Gwent 183
Gwynedd 113
Powys 356

Mr. Hinchliffe

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many cases of confirmed BSE have been reported from(a) the Isle of Man, (b) Jersey and (c) Guernsey, annually for each year since 1988.

Mr. Soames

The information requested, kindly provided by the island authorities, is as follows:

Isle of Man Jersey1 Guernsey2
1988 6 1 34
1989 6 4 49
1990 22 8 73

Isle of Man Jersey1 Guernsey2
1991 68 15 75
1992 108 23 92
19933 73 19 94
1 For Jersey, the information is shown by the year in which the animals were slaughtered as it is not available by the date when they were reported.
2 For Guernsey, only early cases and cases born after the ruminant feed ban in July 1988 have been confirmed by histopathological examination of brain material. All other confirmed cases are based solely on diagnosis by clinical signs.
3 To 26 October 1993.

Mr. Hinchliffe

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if she will make a statement on the accuracy of current methods to identify tissues infected with BSE outside the brain and spinal cord.

Mr. Soames

The bioassay used to detect infectivity in cattle tissues is the most sensitive method currently available. That the test is effective is shown by the fact that it does detect infectivity in brain tissue and cervical spinal cord from confirmed BSE cases, and that incubation periods were shorter than for the equivalent transmission experiments in cattle.

Mr. Hinchliffe

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when she will publish the results of the monitoring study described in paragraph 8.1 of the Southwood report.

Mr. Soames

The monitoring study described in paragraph 8.1 of the Southwood report has not produced any results yet as it is being conducted as a blind experiment and has a number of years to run. However, field evidence derived from the BSE epidemic as a whole shows that to 4 October 1993 there are 347 confirmed BSE cases in animals which were offspring of previously confirmed cases. This incidence is not statistically different from the incidence in cattle whose dams are unaffected.