§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when she hopes to reply to the report sent to her Department in June by microbiologist Dr. Stephen Dealler of York district hospital in respect of BSE in cattle; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mr. SoamesAt a meeting on 22 June Dr. Stephen Dealler gave a pre-publication copy of an article to MAFF 249W scientists, but requested that it be held in confidence and provided to no one else. On 18 August 1993 Dr. Dealler wrote to the secretary of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) giving his permission for the article to be circulated to the committee, and asking for it to be considered at its meeting in October. It was considered at the meeting on 7 October and the chairman of the committee, Dr. Tyrrell, FRS, wrote to Dr. Dealler on 27 October with the committee's comments on the article. That letter drew attention to the fact that Dr. Dealler had drawn his conclusions on the basis of assumptions made about the BSE infectivity of various tissues by extrapolation from the disease scrapie in sheep. Using these assumptions he had gone on to calculate the potential numbers of people who had been exposed to various levels of BSE agent.
The letter from Dr. Tyrrell informed Dr. Dealler that recent experiments conducted with tissues from BSE-infected cattle have shown that only the brain and spinal cord have a detectable level of infectivity and the range of
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Number of suspect cases of BSE reported by county 1992 1993 October November December January February March April May June July August September Eastern 257 233 248 265 213 271 226 162 196 214 216 255 Bedfordshire 12 11 10 12 7 9 9 9 8 3 8 5 Cambridgeshire 10 9 19 14 15 12 18 8 5 14 10 10 Essex 31 13 25 21 13 23 24 12 18 22 17 16 Hertfordshire 17 9 19 16 8 20 14 10 11 9 18 16 Lincolnshire 19 26 16 19 22 33 19 15 14 26 28 34 Norfolk 104 83 94 102 84 99 76 63 78 92 71 110 Northamptonshire 32 35 30 31 26 23 30 19 23 19 27 22 Suffolk 32 47 35 50 38 52 36 26 39 29 37 42 Mid and West 931 859 799 872 830 936 798 780 753 777 759 810 Cheshire 165 152 156 164 150 182 132 135 137 142 132 136 Derbyshire 100 96 89 105 101 94 83 84 73 95 90 90 Hereford and Worcester 77 65 55 59 53 77 66 50 56 54 65 47 Lancashire 186 166 152 153 157 175 134 135 121 127 120 141 Leicestershire 74 63 59 53 88 69 63 63 64 55 69 65 Manchester 12 9 6 10 16 12 18 10 9 9 6 12 Merseyside 5 2 2 1 6 5 1 4 1 3 12 10 Nottinghamshire 24 19 24 26 22 33 20 23 22 19 8 16 Salop 114 96 86 130 100 113 95 90 90 73 65 110 Staffordshire 137 146 135 116 100 122 149 158 145 169 151 131 West Midlands 3 0 2 5 3 5 3 2 2 2 3 5 Warwickshire 34 45 33 50 34 49 34 26 33 29 38 47 Northern 464 462 441 471 452 528 417 365 365 390 422 443 Cleveland 5 4 7 8 9 8 2 6 3 8 8 7 Cumbria 140 157 153 133 150 143 124 93 94 114 113 108 Durham 17 19 23 17 18 23 19 12 12 9 21 26 Humberside 20 24 21 24 18 31 21 22 20 16 26 16 Northumberland 45 29 31 31 38 32 23 24 22 28 22 30 Tyne and Wear 0 1 5 2 1 2 3 1 2 0 1 1 Yorkshire, North 197 192 159 207 180 240 202 177 173 183 191 210 Yorkshire, South 12 13 14 20 18 17 8 5 19 12 13 10 Yorkshire, West 28 23 28 29 20 32 15 25 20 20 29 35 South 391 366 339 386 360 424 366 304 242 290 280 366 Berkshire 13 20 16 13 10 22 16 10 6 19 11 21 Buckinghamshire 28 27 36 40 27 45 33 38 26 25 31 27 Hampshire 78 66 48 97 72 88 71 71 47 54 49 81 Isle of Wight 13 15 17 21 16 15 9 16 10 6 16 11 Kent 47 34 48 32 48 49 51 29 30 35 30 44 London 2 1 0 7 2 2 4 6 1 3 1 3 Oxon 68 51 45 44 53 50 43 40 38 39 31 46 Surrey 27 32 25 32 27 29 31 15 18 19 20 26 Sussex, East 43 30 38 39 39 45 38 28 15 27 32 41 Sussex, West 72 80 66 61 66 79 70 51 51 63 59 66 South West 1,452 1,315 1,476 1,461 1,441 1,497 1,218 1,063 1,037 1,142 1,056 1,162 Avon 80 80 100 91 77 78 67 57 48 58 59 63 other tissues considered by Dr. Dealler, including meat, liver, kidney and lung do not have any detectable infectivity. The implication of using these acutal results, rather than extrapolating from sheep disease, is that there is no evidence of any significant risk from the consumption of tissues other than brain and spinal cord from adult cattle. Brain and spinal cord are among the specified bovine offals whose use is banned under the BSE Order 1991 and which do not therefore enter the human or animal food chain. The SEAC has not advised the Government to amend their safeguards as a result of its consideration of Dr. Dealler's article.
§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if she will list for each month for the last 12 months, and by region, the number of cases of BSE in cattle that have been reported.
§ Mr. SoamesThe numbers of suspect cases of BSE notified to the Ministry in Great Britain, and placed under restrictions, by county for each month from October 1992 to September 1993 are as follows:
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1992 1993 October November December January February March April May June July August September Cornwall 285 270 283 261 283 327 225 212 193 237 177 211 Devon 321 315 330 367 352 356 265 251 290 287 264 263 Dorset 217 181 221 204 173 199 172 153 150 142 162 144 Gloucester 80 69 80 74 79 82 64 55 50 52 57 58 Somerset 303 233 278 304 299 288 260 230 197 246 226 300 Wiltshire 166 167 184 160 178 167 165 105 109 120 111 123 Wales 452 437 426 493 391 456 393 354 329 365 345 376 Clwyd 73 72 57 80 55 75 53 60 45 66 56 60 Dyfed 210 204 199 253 190 215 194 163 172 179 165 172 Glamorgan 6 9 5 6 7 6 1 7 4 4 3 7 Glamorgan, South 12 5 19 15 14 14 16 11 7 8 14 9 Glamorgan 3 6 3 2 3 5 5 2 1 2 5 5 Gwent 31 37 36 37 33 31 29 25 17 34 20 28 Gwynedd 32 23 23 24 18 22 16 12 10 11 17 27 Powys 85 81 84 76 71 88 79 74 73 61 65 68 Scotland 260 252 233 222 246 274 221 188 185 200 219 206 Borders 11 20 16 20 16 21 20 10 8 12 14 13 Central 6 5 4 8 9 7 5 6 11 9 7 1 Dumfries 84 80 72 76 64 82 68 64 57 57 54 60 Fife 7 13 13 9 8 13 9 5 7 11 12 6 Grampian 47 38 40 37 35 50 35 33 42 27 39 49 Highland 13 7 10 12 13 10 8 10 8 13 9 8 Lothian 10 4 4 10 8 10 4 8 2 4 6 8 Orkney 4 1 4 7 2 7 3 0 4 3 5 3 Strathclyde 60 59 54 37 69 55 55 40 29 51 54 43 Tayside 18 25 16 6 22 18 14 12 17 13 19 15 Western 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Final figures for October 1993 are not yet available.
Overall, about 85 per cent. of these suspect cases are eventually confirmed as BSE, the proportion varying at different times of the year.