HC Deb 03 March 2003 vol 400 cc776-7W
Lembit öpik

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many confirmed incidents of bovine tuberculosis were identified in the parliamentary constituencies of(a) Montgomeryshire and (b) Brecon and Radnorshire, in each quarter in (i) 2000, (ii) 2001 and(iii) 2002; and if she will make a statement. [99308]

Mr. Morley

The number of confirmed incidents of bovine tuberculosis in(a) Montgomeryshire and (b) Brecon and Radnorshire, broken down as requested is shown in the table.

Care must be taken in making comparisons with previous years' figures. The disruption to the TB programme caused by FMD, and the rolling nature of the testing programme means that we are now effectively catching up on two years' testing. Clearance of overdue testing has been targeted on those herds at higher risk first, therefore it will not be possible to interpret the data properly until the testing backlog has been cleared.

TB breakdown statistics
Quarter 2000 2001 2002
(a)Number of confirmed incidents of TB in Brecon and Radnorshire
Q1 8 8 15
Q2 4 1 13
Q3 4 0 13
Q4 4 4 26
Total 20 13 67
(b)Number of confirmed incidents of TB in Montgomeryshire
Q1 0 3 11
Q2 0 1 4
Q3 1 1 1
Q4 1 11 5
Total 2 16 21