§ The Earl of Caithnessasked Her Majesty's Government:
Given the problem that the current genotype grading in the National Scrapie Plan poses to hill and northern breeds and the potential detriment that will be caused to the pedigree herds, whether they will consider delaying the implementation of category 3 deadlines. [HL3914]
§ Lord WhittyThe five genotype groupings that are being used for the purposes of the National Scrapie Plan were put in place following extensive consultations with the sheep industry. The third of the groupings covers rams that have little resistance to scrapie and the plan permits them to be sold or used for breeding without restriction until the end of 2004. After that, any ram in this grouping, with the planned exception of a ram with the ARQ/ARQ genotype, on a scheme farm may continue to be used for breeding for a further three years or until the end of its life if that occurs sooner. Given the need to make real progress under the plan, those are long timescales and there are no plans to extend them further. Participation in the National Scrapie Plan is voluntary and it is clearly in the interests of sheep breeders to convert their flock to scrapie-resistant status as rapidly as possible.