§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the possibility that CJD in humans is linked to scrapie in sheep; and if he will make a statement. [25463]
§ Mr. HoramThe possibility that scrapie in sheep might be a cause of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans was examined by the Southwood working party in 1989. The working party concluded that there was no evidence for this and, in particular, that
280Wscrapie has been endemic in Great Britain for centuries without there being any evidence to show an incidence of CJD higher than the international average in the human population.Paragraph 3.7.Member may wish to refer to "The Business Monitor" MA20 and MA21 series, available in the Library of the House, which provides more detail on recorded overseas trade statistics, within which live animal trade can be found.
§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many of the human CJD victims regularly ate lamb and mutton; and if he will make a statement. [25457]
§ Mr. HoramThe latest data on the meat-eating of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease cases was published in the fourth annual report of the National CJD surveillance unit, August 1995—page 16—copies of which are available in the Library.