Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what research and information her Department holds on the prevalence of bovine TB in areas surrounding the pilot culls for each year of those pilot culls.
Answered by George Eustice
The report on monitoring TB prevalence levels in cattle herds inside, and up to 2km outside, the first two badger control areas for the first two years of badger control is available here:
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 14 March 2017 to Question 66627, on bovine tuberculosis: disease control, how many of the 421 carcasses of badgers culled by controlled shooting underwent post-mortem examination in each year; and how many of those carcasses were found to have evidence of more than one hit in each year.
Answered by George Eustice
Of the 421 carcasses of badgers culled by controlled shooting in 2013 – 2016 that have undergone post-mortem examination the distribution of these by year is as follows:
Number of carcases examined | Number with evidence of multiple shots | |
2013 | 158 | 8 |
2014 | 234 | 11 |
2015 | 28 | 6 |
2016 | 1 | 0 |
Total | 421 | 25 |
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking in response to the TB outbreak within Kimblewick Hunt's foxhounds to ensure that other hunts are free of TB.
Answered by George Eustice
Government veterinary experts have provided advice to the hunt kennels and hounds from the affected kennel have not been in contact with other hounds since the initial case was suspected. At this stage no further Government action is considered necessary in relation to other hunts.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy to cancel all hunting activities until foxhound packs across the UK are certified to be free of TB.
Answered by George Eustice
We have no plans to do this.
TB in dogs, caused by Mycobacterium bovis (the bovine TB bacterium), is extremely rare and dogs pose a very low risk of transmitting the disease.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy for TB in hunt packs operating in close proximity to cattle to be a notifiable disease.
Answered by George Eustice
This control has been in place for some time for all pet and farmed mammals. Under the Tuberculosis (England) Order 2014 the detection of suspect TB lesions in carcases and the identification of Mycobacterium bovis from tissue or other samples (including dogs) is notifiable.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to investigate the source of the bovine TB outbreak within Kimblewick Hunt's foxhound packs.
Answered by George Eustice
An epidemiological investigation into this incident is underway.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what research her Department has commissioned to date into the spread of TB from hunting hounds to cattle.
Answered by George Eustice
Bovine TB is a notifiable disease in all farmed and pet mammal species, including dogs. The disease has only very rarely been diagnosed in dogs, in this country and elsewhere, and investigations into bovine TB breakdowns in cattle herds have never identified the source of a breakdown as an infected dog.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps she has taken to prevent the cattle-to-cattle spread of tuberculosis; and what funding has been made available for such prevention.
Answered by George Eustice
TB cattle controls are the cornerstone of our TB eradication strategy and we continuously look for opportunities to enhance them. In April 2016, we introduced compulsory post-movement testing in the Low Risk Area (LRA) of England to reduce the risk of disease spread from cattle with undisclosed infection.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that no healthy badgers are inadvertently culled.
Answered by George Eustice
Trials have shown that reducing the badger population can help reduce the spread of bovine TB. Tests carried out during the Randomised Badger Culling Trial showed that roughly a third of badgers in the high risk area were infected with TB.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many culled badger carcasses have been examined to date; and of those examined how many were found to have (a) been killed outright with one shot and (b) tested positive for TB.
Answered by George Eustice
To date, 421 carcasses of badgers culled by controlled shooting in 2013 – 2016 have undergone post-mortem examination. Of these, 25 were found to have evidence of more than one hit.
Culled carcasses undergoing post-mortem examination have not been routinely tested for TB as the RBCT established that approximately one-third of badgers in areas of high incidence of TB in cattle were infected.