See Parliamentary Question 2164

Section iii) of PQ 2164, shows that in Powys:

 

1) a total of 392 premises were slaughtered out but only 44 were actually shown to have FMD.  NB they only tested 90 of the 392 premises.

 

2) of all the tests on SOS and DC premises (12 out of 14 SOS premises and the 11 out of 304 DC premises) not a single positive result was obtained.  The controversial mass slaughter policy of the Beacons was "justified" by classifiying the premises as DCs.  There were 304 of these DCs, and yet none of the sample tested yielded positive resutls. (This figure includes the contiguous premises).

 

It is patently obvious that if there had been any infection being harboured in the flocks, it would have shown up in the sample tested.  Many of the arguments used to persuade the farmers to part with their flocks was based on the assertion (which was itself decreed by the epidemiological models) that these flocks must have been heavily infected, and needed clearing out.  Nothing could have been further from the truth.

 

3) Of the 74 so called IPs only 44 were shown to have the disease i.e. a correct diagnosis in approx. 60% of cases only (they tested 67 out of the 74 premises).

 

 

Section iii) of PQ shows that in Gwent:

 

1) a total of 149 premises were slaughtered out but only 9 were actually shown to have FMD.  NB they only tested 30 of the 149 premises.

 

2) of all the tests on SOS and DC premises (5 out of 5 SOS premises and 3 out of 119 DC premises) not a single premises was shown to have FMD. Thus out of 119 DCs none were shown to have the disease.

 

3) Of the 25 so called IPs only 9 were shown to have the disease (they tested 22).  Thus the initial diagnoses were at fault, with only one third of the diagnoses being accurate.  Obviously the knock on effect in terms of wrongly slaughtered SOS and DCs was very considerable.