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5 Apr 2005 : Column 1354W—continued

Fisheries

Ms Atherton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many dead harbour porpoises have been stranded on the coasts of Cornwall, Devon and Dorset in each of the past five years; and what the cause of these deaths was. [222863]

Mr. Bradshaw: From 1 January 2000 until 17 March 2005 a total of 352 harbour porpoises were stranded on the coasts of Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. Table 1 gives a breakdown for each county. The number of carcases reported is always higher than the number which are suitable for or actually go to post mortem. I have provided a breakdown for each county for each year, and the causes of death where post mortems were carried out can be found in tables 2 to 4.

Strandings data is obtained under the Defra-funded Cetacean and Turtle Strandings Scheme, carried out by the Natural History Museum in partnership with the Institute of Zoology and Scottish Agricultural College.
Table 1: Total number of stranded harbour porpoise for 2000—up to 17 March 2005

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Cornwall	20	25	68	40	114	13
Devon	8	13	5	11	21	9
Dorset	2	2	1	1	0	0
Total	30	40	74	52	135	22

Table 2: Results of post mortems for harbour porpoise stranded in Cornwall

Cause of death	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Bycatch	3	3	12	3	26	1
Dystocia or stillborn	0	0	0	0	1	0
Gastropathy and/or enteropathy	1	0	0	0	0	0
Live stranding	0	1	0	0	0	0
Not established	0	2	4	3	2	1
Others	0	0	0	1	0	0
Physical trauma	0	2	0	2	0	1
Physical trauma (Bottlenose dolphin kills)	0	1	0	0	1	0
Pneumonia, parasitic	0	2	2	1	0	1
Pneumonia, parasitic and bacterial	0	1	0	0	0	0
Pneumonia, parasitic and mycotic	0	1	0	0	0	0
Starvation (neonate)	0	0	0	0	1	0
Total	4	13	18	10	31	4

Table 3: results of post mortems for harbour porpoise stranded in Devon

Cause of death	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Bycatch	1	3	3	1	0	1
Gastropathy and/or enteropathy	0	0	0	0	1	0
Live stranding	0	0	0	0	1	0
Not established	1	0	0	0	0	0
Physical trauma	0	2	0	0	0	0
Physical trauma (Bottlenose dolphin kills)	0	0	0	0	2	0
Pneumonia, parasitic	1	2	0	0	0	0
Pneumonia, parasitic and bacterial	1	0	0	0	0	0
Total	4	7	3	1	4	1

Table 4: Results of post mortems for harbour porpoise stranded in Dorset

Cause of death	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Bycatch	0	1	1	0	0	0
Physical trauma	1	0	0	0	0	0
Physical trauma (Bottlenose dolphin kills)	0	1	0	0	0	0
Total	1	2	1	0	0	0

 
5 Apr 2005 : Column 1355W
 

Foot and Mouth

Mrs. Browning: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions took place between her Department and Northumberland county council to ensure that all material relating to the index case of foot and mouth disease at Burnside farm, Heddon on the Wall was submitted to the Anderson Inquiry. [214256]

Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 4 February 2005]: There was contact between my Department and Northumberland county council on the prosecution of Mr. Waugh, but there is no record of any such discussions concerning the submission of evidence to the Anderson Inquiry. The Origins of FMD paper, prepared by the then Chief Veterinary Officer, which was submitted to the Anderson Inquiry, contained comprehensive information on the index case.

Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many premises were assigned during the UK foot and mouth epidemic in 2004 to the (a) infected premises, (b) dangerous contact—3 km cull, (c) dangerous contact—contiguous cull, (d) dangerous contact—other, (e) slaughter on suspicion and (f) voluntary firebreak cull category; how many premises in each category were subject to laboratory testing; how many positives were identified in each category by such testing; how much compensation was paid for the value of the animals that were slaughtered at premises in each category; what the cost was of cleansing and disinfection at premises in each category; and how many animals were slaughtered at premises in each category, broken down by species. [224565]

 
5 Apr 2005 : Column 1356W
 

Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 4 April 2005]: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for East Surrey (Mr. Ainsworth) on 23 March 2005, Official Report, column 838W, for the details requested at (a) to (f) , in particular at Tables (ii) and (iv). However, we are unable to identify the information separately for the voluntary firebreak cull.

Compensation paid for the value of animals in each category is a follows:

(a) £482,625,076

(b) £68,677,197

(c) and (d) £527,477,519 (Defra is unable to distinguish between dangerous contact—contiguous cull and dangerous contact—other)

(e) £24,639,178

The information required on the cost of cleansing anddisinfecting at premises in each category is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Livestock Prices

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what changes took place in the average sale prices at markets of (a) sheep and (b) cattle between February and October 2001. [223859]

Alun Michael: Average sale prices at markets for (a) sheep and (b) cattle are available for part of February 2001 before the markets need to close down due to the outbreak of foot and mouth disease. No prices are available between March and October 2001, as the livestock markets remained closed until February 2002.

The following tables give average sheep and cattle prices for February 2001.

		Cattle prices for February 2001
		1st quality		2nd quality
Type/breed		Average price £ per head	Number sold	Average price £ per head	Number sold
Rearing calves:
Friesian/Holstein	Bulls	29.06	655	11.76	1356
	Heifers	71.05	20	28	34
Other dairy breeds	Bulls	56.75	12	13.23	30
	Heifers	42	2	11	18
Hereford	Bulls	77.43	169	38.07	287
Hereford cross	Heifers	24.2	107	10.73	244
Charolais cross	Bulls	142.15	263	91.22	258
Charolais cross	Heifers	37.49	177	17.66	270
Limousin	Bulls	127	435	64.91	734
Limousin cross	Heifers	41.12	220	15.17	635
Simmental	Bulls	137.95	317	86.49	460
Simmental cross	Heifers	40.5	194	18.26	376
Belgian blue cross	Bulls	139.96	371	88.8	435
Belgian blue	Heifers	52.14	239	24.56	433
Other continental	Bulls	103.75	44	65.69	42
Other continental cross		24.8	20	13.98	48
Other beef	Bulls	76.06	129	28.7	220
Other beef cross	Heifers	30.42	26	11.78	192
Store Cattle:
Friesian Holstein yearlings	Steers	258.06	155	176.89	202
	Heifers	—	—	76.44	9
18 months old	Steers	300.58	144	239.2	102
	Heifers	368.11	19	268.89	19
2 years old	Steers	367.71	122	303.22	68
	Heifers	364.67	18	300.4	5
Other dairy breeds:
Yearlings	Steers	352	5	57.2	5
	Heifers	285	1	170	1
18 months old	Steers	381	2	375.75	4
	Heifers	287	2	190	6
2 years old	Steers	515	1	395	1
	Heifers	408	2	210	2
Hereford/Hereford cross:
Yearlings	Steers	277.22	204	234.38	52
	Heifers	172.75	67	133.4	40
18 months old	Steers	364.05	92	336.25	116
	Heifers	276.02	94	204.52	50
2 years old	Steers	421.89	70	330.84	38
	Heifers	321.1	30	193.27	11
Charolais/Charolais cross:
Yearlings	Steers	400.78	437	337	211
	Heifers	262.36	420	192.48	231
18 months old	Steers	486.73	683	387.67	362
	Heifers	382	533	300.65	309
2 years old	Steers	516.06	325	436.3	100
	Heifers	395.15	105	332.33	24
Limousin/Limousin cross:
Yearlings	Steers	415.75	653	349.95	441
	Heifers	314.31	569	232.2	653
18 months old	Steers	489.01	877	422.68	489
	Heifers	401.43	654	313.59	452
2 years old	Steers	538.56	314	439.99	83
	Heifers	418.4	168	333.67	81
Simmental/Simmental cross:
Yearlings	Steers	332.19	249	287.97	197
	Heifers	204.58	175	165.6	131
18 months old	Steers	456.23	370	390.58	269
	Heifers	343.74	315	281.59	194
2 years old	Steers	490.23	256	407.32	144
	Heifers	375.45	64	333.63	70
Belgian blue/Belgian blue cross:
Yearlings	Steers	374.34	95	262.8	91
	Heifers	284.3	84	249.99	113
18 months old	Steers	454.6	119	357.53	47
	Heifers	370.79	71	331.57	60
2 years old	Steers	457.63	59	429.67	15
	Heifers	400.74	50	295	8
Other Continental/other Continental cross:
Yearlings	Steers	401.49	180	346.33	108
	Heifers	297.88	147	217.78	137
18 months old	Steers	491.96	189	393.92	171
	Heifers	406.97	165	326.74	114
2 years old	Steers	471.88	50	390.22	37
	Heifers	426.9	10	336	10
Other beef/other beef cross:
Yearlings	Steers	322	100	232.87	46
	Heifers	202.45	77	126.25	60
18 months old	Steers	408.56	128	322.68	73
	Heifers	280.05	56	238.35	26
2 years old	Steers	464.26	39	400.95	44
	Heifers	349.61	23	267.83	12
Other beef/other beef cross:
Yearlings	Steers	267.33	15	228	1
	Heifers	120.13	16	70.36	11
18 months old	Steers	374.69	26	271.28	32
	Heifers	207.89	19	182	8
2 years old	Steers	473	19	333.5	4
	Heifers	317.33	3	282	1
Barreners (£ per head):
Barreners Dairy		—	—	—	—
Barreners Beef		—	—	—	—
Dairy Breeds		—	—	—	—
Beef Breeds		—	—	—	—
Dairy cattle—Friesan/Holstein
Cows in milk		684.79	327	545.51	250
Cows in calf		608.17	12	382.5	6
1st calving cows in milk		682.31	448	560.68	358
Down calving heifers		529.95	37	405.52	25
Other dairy breeds:
Cows in Milk		511.25	4	380	2
Cows in Calf		—	—	330	1
1st calving cows in milk		493.33	3	210	1
Down calving heifers		—	—	—	—

 
5 Apr 2005 : Column 1359W
 

Sheep prices for February 2001

	1st quality		2nd quality
	Average £ price per head	Number sold	Average price per head	Number sold
Store sheep
Hoggs, Hoggets and Tegs	39.88	7875	25.61	8536
Lambs	27.19	151	17.65	129

Source:
Defra

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