HC Deb 04 December 1995 vol 268 cc51-2W
Mr. Gordon Prentice

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the latest assessment he has made of the probability of BSE entering the human food chain: [1993]

Mrs. Browning

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to my hon. Friend the Member for Wealden (Sir G. Johnson Smith) on 28 November 1995,Official Report, columns 530–31.

Mr. Steinberg

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what measures are currently in place to prevent cattle infected with BSE from entering the food chain. [2668]

Mrs. Browning

The following measures are in place to prevent issue from cattle infected with BSE from entering the food chain:

  1. (i) BSE is a notifiable disease;
  2. (ii) all cattle suspected to be suffering from BSE are killed and their carcases incinerated;
  3. (iii) all cattle receive an ante mortem inspection at the slaughterhouse. Any that display signs of BSE are killed and the carcases incinerated; and
  4. (iv) cattle which are incubating BSE but are not yet showing clinical signs cannot be identified. All cattle are therefore assumed to be potentially infected, and the tissue in which infectivity may be present are removed and cannot be used in human food or animal feed. The tissues are the so called specified bovine offals—brain, spinal cord, spleen and tonsils of cattle over six months of age and the thymus and intestines of all cattle.

My right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food also announced new measures to control the use of bovine vertebral columns in the making of mechanically recovered meat—MRM—in an answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Wealden (Sir G. Johnson Smith) on 28 November, Official Report, columns 530–531.

Mr. Steinberg

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many farmers have been prosecuted to date for falsifying documents relating to BSE in cattle. [2670]

Mrs. Browning

Farmers' declarations that cattle have not resided on a holding in which a case of BSE has been confirmed during the previous six years, or that individual animals are less than two and a half years of age, are required for export purposes. They do not form part of our comprehensive system for the protection of the consumer in this country.

Responsibility for enforcement and prosecution in relation to these declarations rests with local authorities. Although the Department is often kept informed at local level, we do not keep central records of such prosecutions and information on total numbers could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.