To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many confirmed incidents of bovine tuberculosis were identified in the parliamentary constituencies of (a) Montgomeryshire and (b) Brecon and Radnorshire, in each quarter in (i) 2000, (ii) 2001 and(iii) 2002; and if she will make a statement. [99308]
The number of confirmed incidents of bovine tuberculosis in (a) Montgomeryshire and (b) Brecon and Radnorshire, broken down as requested is shown in the table.Care must be taken in making comparisons with previous years' figures. The disruption to the TB programme caused by FMD, and the rolling nature of the testing programme means that we are now effectively catching up on two years' testing. Clearance of overdue testing has been targeted on those herds at higher risk first, therefore it will not be possible to interpret the data properly until the testing backlog has been cleared.
TB breakdown statistics
| |||
Quarter
| 2000
| 2001
| 2002
|
(a)Number of confirmed incidents of TB in Brecon and Radnorshire
| |||
Q1 | 8 | 8 | 15 |
Q2 | 4 | 1 | 13 |
Q3 | 4 | 0 | 13 |
Q4 | 4 | 4 | 26 |
Total | 20 | 13 | 67 |
(b)Number of confirmed incidents of TB in Montgomeryshire
| |||
Q1 | 0 | 3 | 11 |
Q2 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
Q3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Q4 | 1 | 11 | 5 |
Total | 2 | 16 | 21 |