§ Mr. DavidsonTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many cases of BSE have been confirmed in each of the last 12 months(a) in each of the Government office regions and (b) in total. [99845]
§ Ms QuinThe following table gives figures for confirmed BSE cases by month of confirmation for the last 12 months for the State Veterinary Service (SVS) regions in England together with the regional totals. For Scotland and Wales, figures are given to the end of June 1999. From 1 July 1999, provision of figures for those countries became the responsibility of the devolved administrations, so no further details or totals can be supplied.
The total number of BSE cases confirmed in Great Britain for the year ended 31 October 1999 was 3,274.
350WIt must be noted that expressing cases by month of confirmation does not reflect the occurrence of disease at that particular time. The interval between slaughter of the suspect and confirmation of the disease may be six to eight weeks for routine cases, but could be considerably longer in cases where additional tests or further on-farm investigations are requested.
The high number of confirmed cases in the first five months of 1999 is a consequence of accelerated diagnosis in order to provide material for an EU research project. Many of these would have been confirmed in April or May under normal procedures.
Number of BSE cases confirmed in each region by month of confirmation from November 1998 to October 1999 Month East West North Scotland Wales 1998 November 127 237 175 11 44 December 47 109 58 6 13 1999 January 75 125 91 15 21 February 78 124 76 4 15 March 108 160 112 7 31 April 49 81 64 6 15 May 58 91 40 3 17 June 43 82 48 3 15 July 48 66 52 — — August 35 80 45 — — September 50 97 63 — — October 61 77 54 — — Total 779 1,329 878 — —