§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the current health risk to humans from bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
§ Mr. SackvilleI refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave the hon. Member for Don Valley (Mr. Redmond) on 6 February at column866.
§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what expenditure was committed by her Department to research into the health implications of bovine spongiform encephalopathy to humans in 1993.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe Department and the Scottish Office fund research carried out at the national Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease surveillance unit at Edinburgh. This includes examination of occupational and dietary exposure of cases of CJD for possible links with bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The unit will receive a total of £161,000 from the Department of Health in the current financial year.
The Department is also funding a series of studies at the Institute for Animal Health, Edinburgh into the time-temperature combinations required to inactivate scrapie agencies. The studies began on 1 January 1994 with funding of £64,000 in the current financial year.
Research into the human health implications of BSE is also being undertaken by the Medical Research Council which receives its grant in aid from the office of my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
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