§ Mr. SarwarTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on his Department's progress in combating the causes of CJD. [130950]
§ Yvette CooperI have been asked to reply.
The cause of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) is unknown. The view of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee is that the most likely explanation of the cases of variant CJD (vCJD) to date is exposure to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE).
We have implemented all the measures which experts have advised to protect the public from the risk of BSE. These are set out in "Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in Great Britain—a Progress Report", published every six months by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. A copy of the latest version, published in December 1999, is available in the Library.
A major research programme is in place to further our understanding of vCJD.