HC Deb 01 May 1996 vol 276 c566W
Mr. Cohen

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what information his Department has evaluated on the persistence of scrapie on lands used for the grazing of sheep. [24421]

Mrs. Browning

No studies have been carried out on the persistence of scrapie on lands used for the grazing of sheep. On-going epidemiological studies into scrapie may, however, throw some light on the mechanism of infection. A paper by Wisniewski and others entitled "Mites as vectors for scrapie" which was published inThe Lancet on 20 April is currently being evaluated.