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Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Regulations

There is no exemption under EU law or domestic law for live cattle, whether or not they are considered to be pets. In fact, the German Government have recently been taken to task for their lax implementation of the cohort rule. We would face exactly the same infraction proceedings were we to follow the position suggested by the hon. Gentleman, although of course it is always open to legal representatives of the family in question to challenge any final decision if they think that we are interpreting provisions more strictly than other EU countries, or if they think that we have got it wrong. That course is always open to anyone who disagrees with something that the Government are doing. It has also been claimed that Harriet is too old to develop BSE. Again, that is not true. The mean incubation period for BSE in cattle is about five years, but the range is very wide. The oldest reported BSE case in Britain was 22 years of age; the youngest was 20 months. We are told, and the hon. Gentleman has reminded us today, that Harriet cannot enter the food chain because she is padlocked in a field and her passport has been seized. Those measures offer reassurance, although, given the albeit unlikely possibility of cattle rustling, there can be no 100 per cent. guarantee. There remains a legal obligation to cull the animal because she is directly linked to a confirmed BSE case and may have been exposed to the same contaminated feed. The hon. Gentleman also raised the prospect of a new live test for BSE. We have consulted experts at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, who have advised that that test is neither available nor approved yet and it may be some time until it is. I cannot give the hon. Gentleman the guarantee that he seeks that we should simply wait for the possibility of such a live test and not implement the law in the meantime.