§ Mr. GillTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assurances he has received that cattle in other countries are free of BSE. [6210]
§ Mrs. BrowningBSE is a notifiable disease under the rules of the Office of International Epizootics. This places an obligation on all of that organisation's member countries to report all cases of BSE. We have been notified, up to 18 December, of BSE cases in 10 countries, than the United as Kingdom, as follows:
Country Number of BSE cases Canada 11 Denmark 11 Falklands Islands 11 France 12 Germany 14 Republic of Ireland 112 Italy 12 Oman 12 Portugal 28 Switzerland 183 1These countries have only had cases in cattle imported from the UK.
§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps are being taken to isolate bovine spongiform encephalopathy symptomatic cattle at markets and abattoirs; and if he will make a statement. [6954]
§ Mrs. Browning[holding answer 18 December 1995]: All cattle are subject to an ante mortem inspection prior to slaughter at abattoirs, all adult cattle and any showing unusual symptoms are examined by a veterinary surgeon. Any displaying symptoms of BSE are killed and incinerated. Market inspectors will also report any cattle showing potential symptoms of BSE to the Ministry for 126W subsequent veterinary examination and diagnosis: those considered to be actual BSE suspects are killed and incinerated. However inspectors do not examine all cattle at markets, nor are all cattle going to slaughter sold through markets.
§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what research his Department has(a) commissioned and (b) evaluated into rapid research methods of diagnosis of spongiform encephalopathies. [6971]
§ Mrs. Browning[holding answer 18 December 1995]: The Ministry has a wide programme of research to study the nature of the BSE agent and to develop diagnostic tests for it. This work is costing around £1.4 million in the current financial year and is being carried out in six different research laboratories.
§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what research he has(a) commissioned and (b) evaluated in respect of (i) experiments involving the inoculation of mice into a level of BSE toxicity in various bovine tissues and (ii) how much BSE infectivity is required to produce positive results in experimental mice. [7142]
§ Mrs. Browning[holding answer 20 December 1995]: The murine assay for the presence of BSE infectivity does not determine the level of infectivity present in tissues, other than to show that sufficient infectivity is present to produce disease in mice using a protocol designed to maximise the sensitivity of the assay. Using this assay BSE infectivity has been shown to be present in the brain, spinal cord and retina of clinically affected cattle and in the distal ileum of experimentally infected calves. Infectivity estimates depend on the number of mice killed and the dilution of source material to which they become affected, but any estimate will be specific to that particular mouse model and the route of challenge.
§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what research he has(a) commissioned and (b) evaluated in respect of the amount of infectivity (i) that has been found by experimentation in various species to be capable of a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy by injection into a vein and (ii) found in animal experiments to be present in the blood of various species with transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. [7142]
§ Mrs. Browning[holding answer 20 December 1995]: No infectivity has been found in blood or associated blood fractions from cattle infected with BSE.