To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many farms in (a) West Derbyshire constituency and (b) the East Midlands were under bovine tuberculosis restrictions (i) in each of the last five years and (ii) on the latest date for which figures are available. (303191)

Bovine tuberculosis (TB) statistics are collated and reported in the animal health database down to county level. Therefore it is not possible to distinguish the number of herds under restriction in individual constituencies.

The following table shows the number of herds under bovine TB movement restrictions at the end of the last 5 years for the East Midlands (Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire), as well as individual figures for Derbyshire. Data for 2009 are to the end of August. The numbers include herds that were under restrictions for any reason related to bovine TB controls, including for instance a new TB breakdown or an overdue TB test.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many cattle have been slaughtered having tested positive for bovine TB in each of the last five years; how many of those slaughtered did not show signs of TB at post mortem in each year; and how many of those slaughtered had cultures taken at post mortem which subsequently did not confirm the presence of TB in each year. (303534)

The following table shows the number of cattle slaughtered under bovine tuberculosis (TB) control measures in Great Britain over the last five years, and the number of these animals with demonstrable post-mortem evidence of infection having tested positive for bovine TB in each of the last five years.

Following a TB breakdown we aim to carry out post-mortem inspections of all the slaughtered cattle and to take tissue samples from the reactor (or if several animals must be removed, from a representative subset of those), to attempt isolation and molecular typing of the causative organism in the laboratory. This is done to support epidemiological investigations and management of the incident, rather than to validate the ante-mortem test results.

Failure to detect lesions of TB by post-mortem examination, or to culture M. bovis in the laboratory, does not imply that a test reactor was not infected with bovine TB. Indeed, in the early stages of this disease it is not always possible to observe lesions during abattoir post-mortem examination and, due to the fastidious nature of this organism, it is very difficult to isolate it from tissue samples without visible lesions. Meaningful proportions that subsequently did not confirm disease at culture for TB test reactors cannot be provided, as substantial numbers of skin and gIFN positive animals are not subject to laboratory culture—e.g. once infection has already been identified in other cattle from the same herd.