---

Dept for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

Answer

Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many herd breakdowns there have been in each of the last five years owing to a positive reaction to the test for bovine tuberculosis in each region of England; and how many of those herds were closed herds, with no stock brought onto the farms in question in the period since any previous tests. [110757] Mr. Morley: The number of new herd incidents by county 1998-2002 is given in the following table: _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 England--Total 1,224 1,332 1,416 512 2,582 Avon 42 50 53 18 98 Bedfordshire -- 1 1 -- 1 Berkshire 1 2 1 1 Buckinghamshire 5 4 5 1 3 Cambridgeshire -- -- 2 -- -- Cheshire 11 5 4 -- 27 Cleveland -- -- -- -- 1 Cornwall 213 221 228 81 451 Cumbria 8 9 4 2 33 Derbyshire 18 48 23 16 65 Devon 191 244 282 103 524 Dorset 34 40 32 19 91 Durham -- 2 -- -- 3 East Sussex 3 8 7 3 13 Essex 3 -- -- -- 2 Gloucestershire 207 186 227 48 285 Greater London--East 1 -- -- -- -- Greater London--South East -- -- -- -- -- Greater Manchester 6 1 -- -- 2 Hampshire 3 1 4 2 6 Hereford and Worcester 186 204 222 87 328 Hertford 3 1 1 -- 2 Humberside 1 1 5 2 3 Isle of Wight -- 1 -- -- 1 Isles of Scilly -- -- -- -- -- Kent 1 -- -- -- 1 Lancashire 19 4 5 -- 7 Leicestershire 2 3 3 1 8 Lincolnshire 1 12 3 -- 4 Merseyside -- -- -- -- -- Norfolk -- -- 1 -- 1 North Yorkshire 1 2 1 1 8 Northamptonshire 2 1 5 1 8 Northumberland 7 8 8 3 26 Nottinghamshire 4 -- 5 1 4 Oxfordshire 9 5 3 1 3 Shropshire 23 17 39 11 67 Somerset 77 82 102 29 165 South Yorkshire 1 -- 2 -- -- Staffordshire 69 63 48 51 172 Suffolk 1 -- -- -- 1 Surrey -- 1 -- 1 -- Tyne and Wear 1 -- -- -- -- Warwickshire 2 6 4 1 15 West Midlands 1 1 -- -- 2 West Sussex -- 1 1 -- 3 West Yorkshire 2 -- -- -- -- Wiltshire 65 97 86 28 147 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Note: 1. In 2001, the TB testing and control programme was largely suspended due to the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak. Since testing resumed in 2002, resources have been concentrated on herds with overdue TB tests which would have had a longer period in which to contract the disease. Also the proportion of high risk herds being tested post-FMD is greater than that prior to the outbreak. As a result, the number of new herd incidents in 2002 is not comparable to that of previous years. 2. No data is available on the number of closed herds.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

110757; 405 c686W;405 c683-4W

Session

2002-03

Subjects

Cattle Disease control Farmers Economic regions Livestock Testing Bovine tuberculosis

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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