Bovine TB

HC Deb 14 February 2002 vol 380 cc652-4W

Mrs. Ann Winterton

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many herds are under movement restrictions imposed by her Department owing to overdue bovine tuberculosis tests; and if she will make a statement. [35533]

Mr. Morley

Around 1,000 herds are expected to be affected by the measures introduced on 31 January 2002 to re-impose movement restrictions on certain herds in annual testing parishes. These herds had an overdue six or 12 month test after the lifting of movement restrictions following a previous TB incident.

Mrs. Ann Winterton

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the effects of the suspension of the bovine tuberculosis testing programme during the 2001 outbreak of foot and mouth disease on the incubation and spread of TB; and if she will make a statement. [35534]

Mr. Morley

We will not be able to assess accurately the impact of the diversion of resources to deal with the foot and mouth disease emergency on the spread of TB until the backlog of tests has been cleared. As clearance of the backlog and routine testing is being prioritised according to veterinary risk assessment, the early results are from those premises considered most likely to be affected.

Mrs. Ann Winterton

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many press releases were issued about bovine TB by her Department and MAFF in each of the past 36 months. [35536]

Mr. Morley

The number of press releases issued about bovine TB per month in the past 36 months is as follows:

Year/month	Number
1999
February	0
March	4
April	0
May	0
June	0
July	0
August	0
September	2
October	1
November	1
December	4
2000
January	3
February	2
March	3
April	0
May	1
June	0
July	0
August	3
September	1
October	3
November	1
December	1
2001
January	1
February	1
March	0
April	0
May	0
June	0
July	0
August	1
September	1
October	1
November	1
December	0
2002
January	1

Mrs. Ann Winterton

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she has taken to speed up the bovine tuberculosis testing programme since the lifting of foot and mouth disease control restrictions; and if she will calculate the number of personnel employed by her Department in executing the bovine TB testing programme. [35535]

Mr. Morley

Following the foot and mouth emergency we are re-directing resources to the research and control strategy to tackle TB in cattle including the testing programme. To date over 5,800 working hours have been recorded on the testing programme in December 2001. Some 90 per cent. of this comprised work by administrative staff and the remainder by veterinary professionals.

As at 1 January 2002 the complement of permanent veterinary staff of the State Veterinary Service tasked with undertaking, among other matters, the bovine TB testing programme was 218 veterinary officers and 24 divisional veterinary managers. In addition to permanent veterinary staff we are also employing temporary veterinary inspectors. Currently there are 340 in post carrying out similar functions to veterinary officers including work on testing as part of the TB control strategy. Primarily local veterinary inspectors from private practice undertake the actual testing on farms. There are nearly 4,000 approved who will spend a varying proportion of their time carrying out testing on our behalf.