HON MEMBER FOR PENRITH AND THE BORDER AND FELINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY

That this House is reminded of the response of the Committee of the Food Safety Bill on 19th March 1990 by the then Agriculture Minister, the honourable Member for Penrith and The Border, on the risk that bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) might jump species to cats due to infected offal in pet food, that 'I do not want to get into the position where I as a politician go into a crazy panic over pet food, when all the evidence is against there being any risk whatever of the disease jumping species to cats and dogs. I could ban the pet food for no good reason and scientists could a year later say I was wrong' and that policy on bovine spongiform encepthalopathy should not be based on the love of the honourable Member for Leyton for his cats; notes that parliamentary answer by the current Minister of Agriculture on 30th March, that her Department has been notified of 47 cases of feline spongiform encepthalopathy, even thought the disease is not a notifiable one, and that reported cases are at the rate of one a month; and considers that the failure to act by the honourable Member for Penrith and The Border when he had the opportunity to take this matter seriously was a lamentable error of judgement.