§ Mr. WigginTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many bovine TB reactors were positive in(a) Herefordshire and (b) Worcestershire in 2002; and how many have been positive in 2003. [97967]
§ Mr. MorleyReactors to the tuberculin test are slaughtered and examined post-mortem. Infection is confirmed by either the presence of typical, visible lesions of tuberculosis or by the laboratory culture of the causative agent (Mycobacterium bovis) in tissue samples. These post mortem examinations, carried out in abattoirs, are less than 100 per cent. sensitive. Failure to detect visible lesions or failure to culture the organism from a test reactor does not necessarily rule out infection with M. bovis. It would be misleading, therefore, to equate unconfirmed test reactors to "false positives" or "negative" reactors.
The latest available data for 2002 show there were 892 confirmed reactors in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. The information is not available separately for each of the counties.
Laboratory culture of M. bovis takes several weeks. Consequently data for reactors disclosed so far in 2003 is not yet available.