HC Deb 27 October 1994 vol 248 cc777-8W
Mr. Gordon Prentice

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what evidence he has that the BSE agent can be found in the offal of calves under the age of six months.

Mrs. Browning

There is no scientific evidence that BSE agent can be detected in offals from naturally infected calves under six months of age.

However, on 30 June 1994 my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education announced preliminary results from a pathogenesis study in cattle. These showed detectable infectivity in the terminal ileum of calves six months after experimental oral challenge at the age of four months with a large dose of brain material from confirmed BSE cases. After careful consideration of these results Ministers decided, as a precautionary measure, to extend the specified bovine offals ban to include the thymus and intestine of all calves presented for slaughter for human consumption. Legislation to enact this will come into force on 2 November 1994.