To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on progress towards a live test for BSE; and what estimate he has made as to when such a test will be available. [39836]

MAFF has an extensive ongoing research programme into the development of a test to detect BSE in live cattle, valued at £1.825 million this year. Details of this programme were given in the BSE eradication plan, a copy of which is in the Library of the House. It is not possible to estimate when such a test will be developed to a stage when it can be used satisfactorily in the field.

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many cattle subsequently confirmed with BSE were born in each year from the initial onset of the disease. [40310]

As at 4 October the number of confirmed BSE cases, with known dates of birth, listed by year of birth was:

Year of birth	Number of cases
1974	1
1976	2

Year of birth	Number of cases
1977	10
1978	7
1979	40
1980	101
1981	260
1982	1,395
1983	4,480
1984	8,063
1985	11,039
1986	19,626
1987	36,515
1988	21,649
1989	11,543
1990	4,203
1991	2009
1992	270
1993	3

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many sheep since 1990 were confirmed as having scrapie (a) in Britain, (b) in France, (c) in Germany, (d) in Italy and (e) in total in the European Community. [39838]

Scrapie is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of sheep and goats which has been known for at least 250 years. The following list shows the number of cases of scrapie in Great Britain per annum up to 3 October 1996. Figures for 1990 to 1992 show the number of recorded cases confirmed at veterinary investigation centres. Between October 1990 and August 1992, payments were offered for cases when brain pools were being assembled for research purposes. Scrapie became a notifiable disease on 1 January 1993.

• 1990: 348
• 1991: 989
• 1992: 666
• 1993: 327
• 1994: 199
• 1995: 163
• 1996: 129

There are few details on the incidence of scrapie in other member states and the EC has acknowledged that the true incidence is not known. The 1994 edition of the "animal Health Yearbook" states that there are no recorded cases of scrapie in Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal or Spain. Sweden last recorded a case in 1986 and Belgium in 1992. France and Eire are reported to have cases but have not published records of the incidence of the disease. Germany has reported four cases since 1990—one case in each of 1990, 1991, 1995 and 1996.

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many (a) sheep were confirmed as having scrapie and (b) cattle were confirmed as having BSE in each year since 1990 [39835]

Scrapie is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of sheep and goats which has been known for at least 250 years. The following list shows the number of cases of scrapie in Great Britain per annum up to 3 October 1996. Figures for 1990 to 1992 show the number of recorded cases confirmed at veterinary investigation centres. Between October 1990 and August 1992, payments were offered for cases when brain pools were being assembled for research purposes. Scrapie became a notifiable disease on 1 January 1993. From this time onward, cases were confirmed either by histopathology at VICs or by examination of brain by electron microscopy.