§ Dr. Lynne JonesTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of recent studies on maternal transmission(a) of the BSE infective agent in cattle and (b) of related infections in other mammalian species. [119035]
§ Ms QuinMAFF have funded a large-scale experiment to assess whether embryos collected from cows in the late stages of BSE infection and then transplanted into TSE-free recipient cows from New Zealand, go on to develop BSE later in life. Offspring will be observed for seven years for the development of BSE. The study is due to end next year but so far none of the offspring have shown any signs of BSE. This provides experimental evidence to indicate that BSE is not transmitted to embryos by the maternal route.
Similar studies have been performed in sheep infected with scrapie but results have been difficult to interpret because of the complex genetic factors that influence scrapie susceptibility in sheep. Epidemiological work is ongoing to investigate the natural routes of transmission of scrapie, however, it is too early to make an assessment of the results obtained so far.