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Dept for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

Answer

Mrs. Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the level of testing of sheep brains for BSE and scrapie; and when she expects to publish the results of the next round of testing. [18209] Mr. Morley: Between November 2000 and the end of September 2001, 465 sheep scrapie suspects have been tested at the VLA. 284 were found to be positive for scrapie; none have given results indicative of BSE. The Department is also strain-typing, using mouse bioassay, brains from scrapie-infected sheep collected since 1996. In about 180 cases, experiments have reached the first point at which, if BSE was clearly present, it might have become apparent. It has not done so, although the work is still on-going and experiments cannot therefore be interpreted as excluding the presence of BSE. It is likely to require several more years before the strains can be definitively identified. The outcome of all investigations, whether research or surveillance, are kept under continual review, and guidance sought from SEAC where necessary. We will continue to put all our research into the public domain at the earliest opportunity. In the new year, the Department will be launching an abattoir survey and a fallen stock survey to test for TSEs, including scrapie, some 23,000 sheep aged over 18 months. This is part of an EU-wide programme designed to give information on the incidence of scrapie and other TSEs in the European Union. Quantitative data in terms of numbers of animals tested, and number positive, will be reported regularly to the European Commission in accordance with our statutory obligations. This information will also be put in the public domain. Qualitative analysis, whether in terms of the prevalence of scrapie infection in the population sampled, or the nature of any scrapie identified, will under normal circumstances require completion of the survey, and possible further investigations.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

375 c1087W; 18209

Session

2001-02

Subjects

Research Testing Sheep BSE Brain Scrapie

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk