§ Baroness Byfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many sheep have been genotyped since the launch in July 2001 of the National Scrapie Plan; and how many, by breed, have so far been culled as a result. [HL1637]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty)Since the launch of the voluntary National Scrapie Plan, up to the 13 February 2003, a total of 352,753 sheep in 8,685 flocks have been genotyped. This includes 21,710 in 866 flocks tested as part of a survey of rare breed genotypes (for which there are no culling requirements). Under the terms of the plan's ram genotyping schemes, NSP members with rams carrying one or two copies of the scrapie susceptible VRQ allele, have agreed that under normal circumstances these rams will be slaughtered or otherwise prevented breeding by castration or vasectomy. Instructions to slaughter or castrate 8,112 rams have so far been dispatched, of which confirmation of slaughter or castration has been received for 5,956. The remainder are either ram lambs that are being fattened for slaughter, or rams (with 1 VRQ allele) that are being used by agreement with the flock owner in controlled breeding programmes because there is a particularly low level of resistance conferring genotypes in the flock, or rams that are subject to a reminder instruction to slaughter. The number of rams by breed for which confirmation of slaughter/castration has been received is as follows:
63WA
Sheep Breed Confirmation of slaughter/castration (as at 13 February 2003) Badger Faced Welsh Mountain 21 Beltex 26 Beulah Speckled Face 115 Black Welsh Mountain 73 Blackface 626 Bleu du Maine 58 Bluefaced Leicester 44 Border Leicester 136 Brecknock Hill Cheviot 103 British Inra 401 2 Charmoise 5 Charollais 310 Cheviot 544 Clun Forrest 6 Cotentin 1 Dalesbred 7 Derbyshire Gritstone 26 Devon Closewool 14 Dorest Horn & Poll Dorset 186 Dorset Down 1 Easycare 11 Exmoor Horn 24 Friesland 4 Galway 3 Greyfaced Dartmoor 17 Hampshire Down 1 Herdwick 112 Hill Radnor 6 Ile De France 12 Kerry Hill 1 Leicester Longwool 8 Lincoln Longwool 5 Llandovery 10 Lleyn 84 Lonk 15 Meatlinc 54 North Country Cheviot 762 Romney 24 Rouge de L'Ouest 21 Rough Fell 10 Roussin 10 Shetland 76 South Wales Mountain 96 Suffolk 65 Swaledale 115 Talybont 112 Teeswater 44 Texel 1,184 Welsh Hill Speckled Face 65 Welsh Mountain 56 Welsh Mountain 523 Wensleydale 39 White Face Dartmoor 4 White Faced Woodland 1 Wiltshire Horn 69 Zwartbles 9 Total 5,956