To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to prevent the outbreak of Q-Fever amongst goats in the Netherlands from reaching the United Kingdom. [HL1262]

There is currently no definite evidence to suggest the Dutch Q-fever outbreak has been caused by a different strain of the organism that causes Q-fever to that already found endemically in the UK.

Defra requested that the Dutch Q-fever outbreak be considered by the Human Animal Infections and Risk Surveillance (HAIRS) group at its meeting on 6 January 2010. The HAIRS group is a multi-disciplinary group chaired by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) with members from the HPA, Department of Health, the Food Standards Agency (FSA), Defra (including representatives of the key Defra agencies: the Veterinary Laboratories Agency and Animal Health) and participants from each devolved Administration. The meeting considered the one published paper suggesting the possibility that the organism responsible for the Dutch Q-fever outbreak may be of a different strain, but considered this to be speculative not conclusive.

Therefore Defra continues to follow the guidance of the Veterinary Laboratory Agency’s (VLA) small ruminants (sheep and goats) expert group, part of Defra’s scanning surveillance network within the VLA. This group has concluded there are currently no reasons for the UK to stop the importation of goats or sheep from the Netherlands. In fact there are very few consignments of sheep and goats imported from the Netherlands annually (14 in 2008). Furthermore the heightened Dutch controls restricting movements of animals from farms found to be infected with Q-fever will also serve to restrict imports from the Netherlands.