To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will estimate losses to farmers and dealers in the United Kingdom as a result of bans on imports by European Community governments in the light of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy outbreak; and if he will make a statement.

At any time there are many factors affecting markets and no meaningful estimate can be made of the specific impact of the prohibitions on trade recently applied by several member states. In the wake of increased support to the market under the CAP regime for beef and the agreement reached last week in the Agriculture Council, I am pleased to note that market prices have improved significantly.

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will support a unified European Community research programme to study the causes and treatments of BSE.

Yes. The Council of Ministers agreed on 7 June to ask the European Commission to implement a Community-wide programme of research into BSE.

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the (a) number and (b) percentage of beef herds affected by bovine spongiform encephalopathy on a county-by-county basis.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy is not a disease affecting cattle herds but rather one which affects individual animals within a herd.The information requested for Great Britain up to 11 June 1990 is as follows: