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Abattoirs
Mr. Gill: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the effect upon small abattoirs of imposing full-time veterinary supervision; and if he will make a statement. [90389] R
Mr. Rooker: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the right hon. Member for Caernarfon (Mr. Wigley) on 19 January 1999, Official Report, column 454.
Mr. Gill: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what are the cost implications to abattoirs of full-time veterinary supervision; and if he will make a statement. [90385] R
Mr. Rooker:
Based on the current size and structure of the meat production and processing industry in Great Britain, it is estimated by the Meat Hygiene Service that it will be necessary to secure the services of an additional 300 Official Veterinary Surgeons in order to bring veterinary supervision levels in licensed fresh red meat and poultry meat plants (ie slaughterhouses, cutting plants and cold stores) up to the levels required by the EU meat hygiene Directives. In accordance with EU rules, the costs of this additional veterinary supervision, estimated at £21 million in a full year, will have to be recovered from plant operators in the normal way. However, given the shortage of veterinarians willing to undertake meat
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hygiene work in the UK, full compliance with EU requirements is not possible immediately and it may be some years before the required levels and frequency of veterinary supervision is achieved in all licensed plants.
Mr. Gill:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of traceability in (a) craft abattoirs and (b) plant abattoirs. [90388] R
Mr. Rooker:
The traceability and accurate identification of individual carcases throughout the slaughter process depends on the integrity of the commercial service offered by the slaughterhouse rather than its size.
Mr. Gill:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the role which small abattoirs will play in the future of the British meat industry. [90387] R
Mr. Rooker:
The Government recognise the valuable contribution which small abattoirs make to the rural economy and will do what it can to encourage such businesses, consistent with the need to protect public health and with EU legislation.
Mr. Reed:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what percentage of agricultural land in Leicestershire is currently subject to set-aside; and what was the annual cost to public funds in the last year for which figures are available. [91175]
Mr. Rooker:
The area of set-aside in Leicestershire on claims made in 1998 under the Arable Area Payments Scheme (AAPS) was 6,501 ha, or just over 6 per cent. of the total area claimed for. But because not all agricultural land is either eligible or claimed for under AAPS, the proportion of set-aside in relation to agricultural land in the country as a whole is estimated at around 3 per cent. Comparable figures for 1999 are not yet available.
At the 1998 payment rate, the payment from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund for this area of set-aside would have been £1,962,000.
Miss McIntosh:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on Milk Marque's application to expand into processing milk products. [91413]
Mr. Rooker:
In his statement of 6 July, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry stated that Milk Marque, while it remains a monopoly supplier of raw milk to the processing sector, should not be allowed to extend its milk processing activities in the way planned. He therefore asked the Director General of Fair Trading to seek undertakings from Milk Marque that it would not take any further steps towards making or carrying out any agreement to acquire or build processing plant without prior agreement by the Director General.
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Mr. Alan W. Williams:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Clwyd, South (Mr. Jones), of 21 January 1999, Official Report, column 574, on BSE, if he will make a statement on the results to date of random sampling for BSE of cows slaughtered under the over thirty months scheme [91477]
Mr. Rooker:
The first stage of the survey is now complete. Between January and March a total of 4,163 heads were collected from cattle slaughtered in the Over Thirty Month Scheme. In accordance with SEACs wishes, the sample was not random but cattle that were five years of age or older were targeted. This was to ensure that we were sampling cattle that were most likely to be close to clinical onset and would therefore be positive by examination of brain tissue, if infected.
Of the brains removed, a total of 3,951 were in a suitable condition for examination. So far we only have results of histopathological examinations. These examinations have identified a total of 18 positive and 3,933 negative brains. We are not yet in a position to interpret the data fully because we await the results of two other diagnostic tests and a statistical analysis of the age structure of animals slaughtered under the OTM Scheme.
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Mr. Gordon Prentice:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what criteria are used for determining the age of cloned animals; and if he will make a statement. [91732]
Mr. Rooker:
The age of a cloned animal is determined from the date of its birth. There have been suggestions backed up by recently published results, albeit based on a very small sample, that animals cloned from adult cells may be genetically older than their birth age. Further research, and the passage of time, will be needed to determine whether cloned animals do have a shorter life span.
Angela Smith:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the circumstances under which mink carcases may be disposed of at (a) landfill sites and (b) incinerators. [90074]
Mr. Rooker
[holding answer 15 July 1999]: The Animal By-Products Order 1999 requires animal by-products, such as mink carcases, to be disposed of by one of a number of routes including incineration. Burial, including landfill, is permitted only where the animal by-product is in a place where access is difficult or where the quantity of by-product and the distance to premises in which disposal is otherwise permitted do not justify transporting it.
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