§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what consideration she gave to banning the use of the brains and spinal cords of calves under the age of six months in human food equally with the intestines and thymus; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mr. SoamesI have considered carefully the advice of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee and the Government's chief medical officer and concluded that on the basis of the scientific evidence there is no justification for banning the use of brain, spinal cord, tonsils and spleen of calves under six months of age from human food.
§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what research she is doing on the dangers of consumption of the thalamus.
§ Mr. SoamesThe thalamus is part of the brain, and therefore from bovine animals over six months of age is a specified bovine offal which is prohibited for use in food for humans, animals and birds. The thalamus has not been 645W tested separately from the rest of the brain, which has been assayed on several occasions, and in which the BSE agent has been shown to be present in brains from clinically infected cattle.
The hon. Member may have in mind the thymus gland which was specifically mentioned in the reply my right hon. Friend the Minister gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Woodspring (Dr. Fox) on 30 June, Official Report, column 264, about new controls on calf offals. The thymus is also a specified bovine offal and prohibited for human consumption. Thymus tissue from experimental calves orally challenged with a large dose of BSE-infected brain is being assayed for infectivity in mice under a project funded by the Ministry. This research is incomplete but so far there is no evidence of infectivity in thymus tissue.