§ Mrs. GormanTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what investigations his Department has undertaken into spongiform type symptoms in dogs held in(a) kennels and (b) quarantine. [22727]
§ Mr. RookerBrains from culled hounds in packs throughout Great Britain, which are traditionally fed fallen livestock and so may be considered a high risk population exposed to tissues potentially infected with transmissible spongiform encephalopathies before controls were introduced in September 1990, have been examined and the results considered by SEAC in August 1994. The results were re-evaluated in June 1995. SEAC concluded that the results were inconclusive because there were certain limitations in the protocol of the study. However, it was recognised that the study established that in the dogs studied there was no evidence of a pathologically overt spongiform encephalopathy. It has to be stressed that the hounds were being culled for a variety of reasons and the vast majority were showing no evidence of suffering from neurological disease.
The brains of dogs which die in quarantine are routinely examined for the presence of rabies. Depending on the clinical signs presented before death, some may also be examined for evidence of spongiform encephalopathy if the rabies diagnosis is negative. No TSE has been identified by these examinations.
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§ Mrs. GormanTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what proportion of SEAC funding was devoted to(a) the BSE/CJD link, (b) the BSE/ organophosphate link and (c) evidence relating to the incidence of spongiform diseases in humans before the BSE outbreak in the last year for which figures are available. [22726]
§ Mr. RookerSEAC funding covers the cost of arranging meetings, members' fees and their travel costs. It is not broken down by subject.