BSE (Hansard, 22 February 2000)

§ Mr. Ben Chapman
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will publish the most recent figures for confirmed BSE cases broken down by year of birth. [111528]

§ Ms Quin
The position as at 16 February 2000 was as follows:

Year of birth Total number of confirmed cases

1974 1

1976 2

1977 10

1978 6

1979 41

1980 101

1981 261

1982 1,393

1983 4,461

1984 8,067

1985 11,064

1986 19,728

1987 36,861

1988 22,175

1989 12,631

1990 5,620

1991 4,519

1992 3,010

1993 2,062

1994 849

1995 118

1996 1

Unknown 43,322

Total 176,303

§ Mr. Beith
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has to publish the evidence given in the Phillips inquiry into BSE. [110501]

§ Ms Quin
The BSE Inquiry is responsible for decisions about the publication of the evidence it receives and its approach has been to make available the evidence on which it relies. It has published witness statements and transcripts of all oral hearings on the internet at http://www.bse.org.uk, and many other documents are publicly available at its offices.

§ Mr. Beith
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what(a) evidence and (b) observations relating to the use of organophosphates on cattle he has submitted to the Phillips inquiry. [110502]

§ Ms Quin
My Department has provided numerous documents on the use of organophosphorus based warblecides to the BSE Inquiry, including papers on the warble fly eradication programme and on the licensing of warblecides.

§ Mr. Llwyd
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what live tests have resulted from the research which he sponsored as a result of the open competition for research on BSE diagnosis in cattle in 1994. [110527]

§ Ms Quin
No research on BSE diagnosis was funded following the open competition for research in 1994. This competition did not call for work in this area. There was, 969W however, a competition in 1996 which resulted in three projects on diagnostic tests for BSE. One of these, which was designed to investigate the differences in metabolic markers in the live animal, is still in progress. None of this work has yet produced a test which can be used in the live animal. Useful post mortem tests have resulted from the completed projects. These are now being evaluated and developed further to improve their sensitivity.

§ Mr. Yeo
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what action he has taken to protect(a) British consumers and (b) the British cattle herd since he was informed of the contents of the report to Directorate D of the Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General of a veterinary mission to France with regard to certain protective measures against BSE and scrapie with particular reference to implementation of Commission Decisions 94/381/EC, 98/272/EC, 98/703EC and 97/18/EC. [109788]

§ Mr. Nick Brown
[holding answer 11 February 2000]: Domestic legislation already in place to safeguard consumers prohibits the import of bovine specified risk material and the sale of any meat derived from cattle over 30 months old. Compliance with the prohibition on meat and bone meal in feed is monitored through regular sampling.

§ Mr. Yeo
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on what dates he has(a) spoken by telephone to and (b) met (i) the French Minister of Agriculture, (ii) the European Commissioner with responsibility for agriculture and (iii) the European Commissioner with responsibility for health and consumer protection to discuss the contents of the report to Directorate D of the Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General of a veterinary mission to France with regard to certain protective measures against BSE and scrapie, with particular reference to implementation of Commission Decisions 94/381/EC, 98/272/EC, 98/703EC and 97/18/EC. [109787]

§ Mr. Nick Brown
[holding answer 11 February 2000]: These issues are for the Commission and individual member states, not for bilateral discussion between member states.

§ Mr. Yeo
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he was first informed of the contents of the report to Directorate D of the Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General of a veterinary mission to France with regard to certain protective measures against BSE and scrapie, with particular reference to implementation of Commission Decisions 94/381/EC, 98/272/EC 98/703EC and 97/18/EC. [109789]

§ Mr. Nick Brown
I was informed of the report on 6 February.

§ Mr. Chaytor
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list, for each of the last two years for which records are available, the ages at the time of diagnosis of all the cattle in the United Kingdom diagnosed as suffering from BSE. [109328]

§ Ms Quin
The table shows the number of confirmed cases of BSE reported in the UK in the calendar years 1998 and 1999¹, by age of the animals. 970W

Age in years 1998 1999 ¹

1–2 0 0

2–3 1 1

3–4 131 42

4–5 772 415

5–6 986 713

6–7 626 510

7–8 232 220

8–9 140 94

9–10 115 42

10–11 83 52

11–12 49 32

12–13 11 11

13–14 4 11

14–15 1 0

15 or more 1 0

Age unknown 44 27

Totals 3,196 2,170

¹ Preliminary figures for 1999 as at 9 February 2000

Year of birth	Total number of confirmed cases
1974	1
1976	2
1977	10
1978	6
1979	41
1980	101
1981	261
1982	1,393
1983	4,461
1984	8,067
1985	11,064
1986	19,728
1987	36,861
1988	22,175
1989	12,631
1990	5,620
1991	4,519
1992	3,010
1993	2,062
1994	849
1995	118
1996	1
Unknown	43,322
Total	176,303

Age in years	1998	1999 ¹
1–2	0	0
2–3	1	1
3–4	131	42
4–5	772	415
5–6	986	713
6–7	626	510
7–8	232	220
8–9	140	94
9–10	115	42
10–11	83	52
11–12	49	32
12–13	11	11
13–14	4	11
14–15	1	0
15 or more	1	0
Age unknown	44	27
Totals	3,196	2,170
¹ Preliminary figures for 1999 as at 9 February 2000