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Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food

Answer

Mr. Luff: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) if he will make a statement on the (a) disposal methods being employed and (b) length of time taken to dispose of animal carcasses slaughtered as part of the control of foot and mouth disease in Worcestershire; [155161] (2) what plans he has to use additional sites in Worcestershire for the disposal of culled animals; [156986] (3) when disposal of carcasses will begin at the Waresley landfill site in Worcestershire; for how long the site will be used for this purpose; and how many animals he anticipates will be disposed of at the site. [157699] Ms Quin: We will continue to use all safe disposal methods available to us. At present the main options are burial or burning on farm, incineration in authorised incinerators, rendering, disposal in specially identified landfill or mass burial sites, or burning in mass burning sites. Commercial landfill sites are used primarily for the disposal of animals slaughtered under the Livestock Disposal (Welfare) Scheme. In Worcestershire, there are no suitable incinerators or rendering facilities, so these are not options. Although the Waresley site in Worcestershire has been approved by the Environment Agency for carcass disposal, there are no plans at the present time to use this site. There is a mass burial site currently being used, at Throckmorton airfield. There are currently no plans to use additional sites in Worcestershire. With the help of the armed forces, we have been able to reduce significantly the time taken to dispose of carcases in the majority of cases. The statistics collected for Hereford and Worcester show that for animals slaughtered in this area in the week commencing 22 April, the average time taken to dispose of carcases was 28 hours.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

368 c463W;368 c463-4W; 155161;156986;157699

Session

2000-01

Subjects

Disease control Foot and mouth disease Waste disposal Worcestershire

Link

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