To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many cases of BSE have been confirmed in each calendar year from 1987 and to date for the current year.

The number of confirmed cases in Great Britain, by the date of onset of clinical signs of the disease, is as follows:

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many cases in total of BSE have been confirmed to date in (a) Dyfed, (b) Wales and (c) Great Britain.

The information is as follows:

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the Government's latest assessment as to when the incidence of BSE will reach its peak and by what date it will fade out.

Because of the long incubation period of BSE it is impossible to predict accurately when we will see a decline in cases appearing. Nevertheless it is now over three years since the most likely source of infection was cut off by means of banning, from July 1988, the feeding of ruminant protein to cattle and other ruminants.The number of cases arising from infection prior to that date will continue to increase for some time. We would expect however to see a decline in the number of confirmed cases some time next year, provided that other routes of transmission do not play a significant part in the epidemiology of the disease.