HC Deb 20 February 1996 vol 272 cc115-6W
Mr. Martyn Jones

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what strain typing studies his Department is currently funding into BSE cases; and what plans he has to extend them to cover cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. [7214]

Mrs. Browning

This Department is currently funding the following strain typing study of BSE, at the neuropathogenisis unit, EdinburghStrain typing of BSE pathogen in mice and comparison with strains from natural sheep scrapie".

Responsibility for funding research into cases of CJD falls to the Department of Health.

Mr. Sheerman

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what research he has(a) commissioned and (b) evaluated into the possibility of domesticated animals other than bovines developing spongiform encephalopathy. [7233]

Mrs. Browning

The Department has commissioned a number of pieces of work to look at the transmission of BSE to other domesticated species; work has also been done independently. This work has shown that sheep, goats and mink develop spongiform encephalopathy when fed with brain from cattle clinically affected with BSE.

(1) Cash (mecu1)
1980 1985 1990 1995
(i) Export refunds 5,695 6,716 7,798 7,803
(ii) Intervention buying and storage 1,631 4,440 5,477 338
(iii) Arable area payment schemes 1,252 3,694 9,038 (13,491)
(iv) Other direct payments2(to farmers) 23,009(8,409)
(v) Production aids (paid via processors) (1,109)
(vi) Removing produce from the market (withdrawals and similar operations) 298 894 648 564

Notes:

For expenditure prior to the CAP Reform of 1992, there is no breakdown of arable area scheme; payments, other direct payments and production aids and these have been group together.

1 1980 expenditure is in millions of European Units of Account.

2 Excludes some direct payments to farmers which are subsumed under CAP programmes for remote regions.

Sources:

1980, 1985, 1990 Annual FEOGA Financial Reports, 1995 Commission Working document VI/72/95 (12 December 95).

1996 Prices calculated using deflator of private consumption. Source: European Economy—Annual Economic Report.

1995 No. 59 and European Economy (Supplement A) Economic trends No. 12 December 1995.

(2) At 1996 Prices (mecu1)
1980 1985 1990 1995
(i) Export refunds 13,463 10,363 9,810 8,037
(ii) Intervention buying and storage 3,856 6,851 6,890 348
(iii) Arable area payment schemes — — — (13,896)
(iv) Other direct payments2(to farmers) 2,960 5,700 11,370 23,699 (8,661)
(v) Production aids (paid via processors) — — — (1,142)

Pigs have succumbed when BSE infected brain has been injected intra-cerebrally but not when fed infected brain. The only domesticated species in which BSE type disease has occurred naturally, rather than being experimentally induced, is the cat.

All species of animals and poultry are protected against the risk of infection with BSE by the ban on the use of specified bovine offals in feed, which was introduced in September 1990.