TUESDAY 16 MARCH 1999

MR BRIAN DICKINSON, MR JIM SCUDAMORE, DR CHRIS CHEESEMAN and DR GLYN HEWINSON

  551. Gentlemen, welcome to this the last public session of evidence that the Committee is taking on its Inquiry into Badgers and Bovine Tuberculosis. I wonder if I can begin, as always, by asking you, for the record, to introduce yourselves. Mr Dickinson?
  (Mr Dickinson) Thank you, Chairman. I am Brian Dickinson, the Head of the Animal Health group in the Ministry of Agriculture. On my left I have Dr Chris Cheeseman, who is the Head of the Unit in the Central Science Laboratory which is operating at Woodchester Park for research into badgers. On my right I have Jim Scudamore, the Chief Veterinary Officer; and, beyond him, Glyn Hewinson, from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency.

  552. Thank you. I wonder if I can begin with some very strictly factual questions, really. First of all, do we yet have data for the whole of 1998 on the incidence of bovine tuberculosis?
  (Mr Dickinson) We have provisional data on the incidence, but because of the time it takes to resolve some of the cases we do not have final data yet.

  553. What does that provisional data indicate, in terms of the increasing incidence of the disease?
  (Mr Dickinson) It shows that there were 720, provisionally, new, confirmed incidents, which is about a 40 per cent increase on the previous year.

  554. Can you help me with a question that I am sure I should understand the answer to, and I do not. Exactly what are the implications of a rising incidence of tuberculosis, in terms of British status as a TB-free country; what does it actually mean, in practice, for you, as a Ministry, and for farmers, and for our world trade, for that matter, as well?
  (Mr Scudamore) I will try to answer that one. The status, as a country, is based on EU legislation, and under that legislation we are not officially a tuberculosis-free country, there is no such thing; it is the status of the herds within the country. So the first point to make, I think, is that it is the status of the herds in the country, every herd is officially tuberculosis-free unless there is an incident of TB and we have to put it under restrictions and downgrade it. The implications though for the country as a whole are the rate of testing that we have to undertake, so the rate of tuberculin testing is either annually, two-yearly, three-yearly or four-yearly and that will be based on the level of TB in the herds; so the level of TB in the herds, as a proportion of the population of cattle herds, determines the frequency of testing we have to undertake.

  555. So where are we at present, in terms of frequency of testing?
  (Mr Scudamore) It is very variable. As a country as a whole, we are on four-yearly testing, so in areas where we have no problem the testing is, every herd will be tested every fourth year, but we have the ability to alter that testing rate, depending on where we have problems.

  556. The ability but not the obligation?
  (Mr Scudamore) We do not have the obligation at the moment, but there is a new part of the Directive coming into force in July which will lay down the rates of testing that have to be done, and that is related to the incidence of disease.

  557. On a national basis, or a regional basis?
  (Mr Scudamore) We think we can interpret it to be done on a regional basis. So the country as a whole is four-yearly testing, and that means that the level of disease has to be less than 0.1 per cent of the cattle herds. If the level rises between 0.1 and 0.2 per cent then we have to go to three-yearly testing; and if it rises between 0.2 and 1 per cent, we have to move to two-yearly testing; and if it is greater than 1, we have to move to annual testing.

  558. Where are we at present; you just said we are at the bottom at present?
  (Mr Scudamore) The country varies. The bulk of the country is four-yearly testing, so, for example, Scotland would be four-yearly testing, the North of England would be four-yearly testing, some counties will be on underlying four-yearly testing but there will be parts of the county, some parishes, which are three, or two, or one.

  559. But if we reach a certain level, say 1 per cent, we would have to do that across the whole country, that increased testing?
  (Mr Scudamore) No, we do not believe so. We think we can isolate it into county, and we will be looking at counties.