§ Ms Rosie WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement about clusters of cases of Variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease. [155227]
§ Yvette CooperNinety-seven 'definite' and 'probable' cases of variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (vCJD) have been identified to date. A number of geographically associated case groupings is under investigation, but only one such grouping has so far been identified by the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) in July 2000 as being unlikely to have occurred by chance. That grouping of cases occurred in an area in Leicestershire near Queniborough. A subsequent investigation by Leicestershire health authority into these cases has been undertaken and the results are being announced in a report published today. A copy is being placed in the Library. The main conclusion from the investigation is that there is a strong association between these cases and cross-contamination of carcase meat with cattle brain material which occurred at a number of local butchers' premises during the 1980s.
Controls on specified risk material (SRM) have, since 1989, required brains of cattle over six months old to be removed and disposed of under controlled conditions. It has been illegal since then for them to be used for human consumption. And, since 1996, it has been a legal requirement for the whole head of cattle over six months old to be disposed of in the slaughterhouse as SRM under the supervision of the Meat Hygiene Service.
Scientific advisers and health experts, including SEAC, will be looking very carefully at the results of the study, to assess the implications for our wider understanding of vCJD.