§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the average time taken is(a) in the territory of each of her Department's regional offices, and (b) in England, between an animal reacting positive to a test for Bovine TB and that animal being taken for slaughter. [65472]
§ Margaret BeckettThe information requested is given in the table below.
The average length of time taken to remove TB-infected reactors from farms in each State Veterinary Service region with a breakdown between 21 June 2001 and 20 June 2002 SVS Region Number of observations Average no. days between date of reading the tuberculin test and date of slaughter West 968 30.4 East 21 13.1 North 92 9.7 England total 1081 17.7 Note:
The TB-infected reactors reported are animals with a reaction to the tuberculin test that were compulsorily slaughtered and had samples submitted to VLA for microbiology. Provided that they (a) had lesions of TB visible at the slaughterhouse, and/or (b) VLA found the TB organism in the sample.
1238WThe time reported represents the number of days between reading the skin test and removing an animal from the farm.
Figures for West region include cases where animals became reactors in the month before the disruption of normal TB control procedures caused by Foot and Mouth Disease.