Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he or officials of his Department have had on the effects of digestion of sycamore tree seeds on horses; and what estimate he has made of the number of horses that have died as a result of ingesting such seeds.

Digestion of sycamore seeds can cause equine atypical myopathy. However, like many other equine illnesses, such as strangles and equine influenza, this is not a notifiable disease so there has been no need for active government intervention.

Defra works closely with the Animal Health Trust (AHT) and the British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) in identifying cases of this emerging condition in the British equine population. This includes monitoring scientific developments and inclusion of data in the joint Defra/AHT/BEVA Equine Quarterly Disease Surveillance Report published on the AHT's website.

This type of surveillance and communication enables private veterinarians to advise horse keepers to avoid pasture containing sycamore trees during high risk periods and to provide additional forage on fields where grazing is poor. This should be sufficient to mitigate against this illness. We will continue to monitor the situation and keep in touch with the equine veterinary profession to be aware of developments.