HC Deb 27 November 2002 vol 395 cc285-6W
Mr. Roger Williams

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what measures she is taking to ensure the selective breeding of scrapie-resistant sheep; and how much her Department has spent on research into scrapie in each of the last five years. [83149]

Mr. Morley

The national scrapie plan has been in operation since July 2001. The aim of the plan is to eradicate TSEs from sheep by breeding genetic resistance into the national flock. So far, over 260,000 sheep have been genotyped. In addition, 25,000 ewes have been genotyped in Wales through the Welsh ewe genotyping scheme.

The table gives expenditure on research into sheep TSEs (covering both scrapie and BSE research). The figures include expenditure on the development of TSE diagnostic tests.

Expenditure on development of TSE diagnostic tests
(£)
1997 to 1998 3.7
1998 to 1999 5.1
1999 to 2000 6.9
2000 to 2001 8.4
2001 to 2002 10.4