§ Nick HarveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what measures her478W Department is taking to prevent the import of foot and mouth disease from South Korea; and if she will make a statement. [59629]
§ Mr. MorleyKorea is not authorised to export meat or animals to the European Union. DEFRA official veterinary advice is that there is no significant risk of travellers bringing foot and mouth disease back from Korea, provided rules on personal imports of animal products are observed.
In relation to the World cup, the games are played a long distance from the outbreaks and we have issued advice to fans via the Football Association website to keep away from farms and to avoid bringing back animal products.
The British consulate in Korea have placed similar advice on their website. Enforcement agencies were notified of the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Korea and advised to be vigilant of passengers travelling back from Korea.
§ Nick HarveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural affairs what discussions her officials have had with their South Korean counterparts about the spread of foot and mouth disease in that country; and if she will make a statement. [59628]
§ Mr. MorleyWe have received timely, detailed information from Korea on their disease situation through the EU, the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) and direct from the Korean authorities. The foot and mouth disease outbreak in Korea was discussed at a recent bilateral meeting at the OIE General Assembly in Paris.
§ Mr. KeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when her Department will finalise the analysis of the questionnaires completed by foreign veterinary surgeons who assisted in the eradication of foot and mouth disease; and if she will place the analysis in the Library. [62007]
§ Mr. MorleyDue to other priorities, it has not yet proved possible to finalise the analysis of the questionnaires completed by those foreign veterinary surgeons who assisted in the eradication of foot and mouth disease.
§ Mr. LuffTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list, on a county basis, the weekly laboratory test results for foot and mouth disease on infected premises, broken down by(a) negative, (b) antibody positive and (c) virus positive results; and how many infected premises in each county were not the subject of laboratory tests. [62259]
§ Mr. MorleyThe information requested is given in tables which have been placed in the Library.
For the samples that returned positive and negative results, premises have been attributed to the week in which samples were received at the laboratory.
Information regarding whether a result was antibody positive or virus positive cannot easily be obtained. Therefore the figures simply report that a positive result returned.
Source:
DEFRA's Disease Control System (DCS) database as at 11 June 2002. Data may be subject to revision as more information becomes available and as the data within DCS is validated.
479W
§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she is taking to reduce the possibility of a further outbreak of foot and mouth disease; and if she will make a statement. [62157]
§ Mr. MorleyWe are taking a number of steps to reduce the possibility of a further outbreak of foot and mouth disease through initiatives covering prevention; disease surveillance and contingency planning.
On 28 March the Government launched an action plan to reduce the risk of plant and animal disease entering the country illegally and threatening our agricultural and horticultural industries. A copy of the action plan can be found in the House Libraries. As recommended by the Policy Commission on Food and Farming, the action plan commits the Government to undertake a risk assessment of the threat posed by contaminated illegal meat imports. This is well under way and due to report in the autumn. The information provided by the risk assessment will help inform decisions about the nature of risks from imports so that resources can be efficiently targeted. Along side the risk assessment, work is being carried out to improve publicity and raise awareness of the risks posed by personal imports. Other work is concerned with improving detection and a pilot detector dog scheme will be operational later in the year.
We attach great importance to veterinary surveillance for the early detection of new or exotic diseases/ infections, including foot and mouth disease. Work on a strategy to enhance veterinary surveillance was curtailed last year because of the foot and mouth epidemic. This work has resumed and a strategy document is now in early draft form and will be issued for public consultation later this year.
In the event of a future outbreak of foot and mouth disease our ability to quickly contain and eradicate the disease will be vital. DEFRA has already published an interim operational contingency plan to support the European Union approved strategic plan, veterinary instructions and local plans that already existed. This draws extensively on experience of the 2001 outbreak and DEFRA will develop this further to achieve better emergency preparedness, taking full account of the recommendations of the independent inquiries.
Additionally, preventive measures introduced during the 2001 outbreak remain in force, for example the ban on feeding pigswill to livestock and the 20 day standstill on the movement of livestock.