HC Deb 15 May 2002 vol 385 cc657-8W
Mrs. Ann Winterton

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will calculate the number of ewes with lambs at foot slaughtered under(a) disease control restrictions and (b) the livestock welfare disposal scheme during the 2001 outbreak of foot and mouth disease. [35537]

Mr. Morley

It is not possible to calculate the number of ewes with lambs at foot slaughtered either for disease control purposes or under the livestock welfare disposal scheme because lambs at foot have not been recorded separately. For the purposes of disease control it is only necessary to record animals by species ie cattle, sheep, pigs goats, deer and other. Lambs at foot have therefore simply been included in the sheep category.

We are aware that to date not all the lambs at foot, slaughtered for disease control purposes, have been included in the figures on DEFRA's disease control system database (DCS). In the early stages of the outbreak, in line with normal husbandry practice, a number of ewes with lambs at foot were recorded as one unit (ie one animal). It was quickly recognised that each animal should be separately recorded and, as staff resources became available, an exercise to amend the DCS began.

This exercise is now well under way and many of the lambs at foot are already reflected in the total slaughter figure of around 4 million for disease control purposes. Information describing this exercise has been on the DEFRA website for some time, where it is also noted that the data on the DCS are being validated and may result in figures being revised.

Slaughtering under the livestock welfare disposal scheme took place at abattoirs and it was consequently more likely that lambs at foot were recorded in the slaughter figures. These figures are therefore very unlikely to change.

Tony Cunningham

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she will reply to the letter of 11 June 2001 from Mrs. M. Edmunds of Low Lorton, Cumbria concerning foot and mouth disease. [43039]

Mr. Morley

[holding answer 14 March 2002]: I am sorry that my hon. Friend has not received a reply to his letter, but we are unable to trace it.

I appreciate that my hon. Friend's constituent will be disappointed at not receiving a reply, and suggest, if a reply is still needed, that my hon. Friend sends us another copy of her letter so that we can provide an answer.