March 25, 2004

 

 

EU Sees 38% Fall In Mad Cow Cases

 

The number of mad cow cases in the European Union has fallen by 28% in 2003 compared to 2003, according to the European Commission.

Five of the current Member States - Greece, Luxembourg, Austria, Finland and Sweden - have not reported BSE in 2003.

 

Courtesy of BSE testing, around 10 million bovine animals have been analysed in the 15 current Member States and about 700,000 analyses have been reported from seven new Member States.

 

So far, 1,318 BSE cases have been detected in the current Member States last year and 12 in four new Member States.

 

In the accession negotiations, all new Member States have made commitments to fully transpose and implement the TSE legislation at the latest by accession (May 1).

 

As in other fields, these commitments need to be monitored.

 

The Food and Veterinary Office has carried out two series of BSE inspections in all new Member States.

 

The final reports and the general report of the first series have been distributed to the Member States.

 

In all countries, BSE measures have been progressively implemented but important gaps in certain areas still remain in some countries.

 

Routine rapid BSE testing has been introduced on a wide scale in most new Member States and the rest should start at May 1, 2004.

 

All countries test animals in risk groups (emergency slaughtered, fallen stock), although this testing is still not sufficient in many of them.

 

All new Member States are removing SRMs and total feed bans are now in place in all of them.

 

Four new Member States have now reported BSE. In the Czech Republic, there have been nine cases since June 2001; in Slovakia, 13 cases since September 2001; in Slovenia, three cases since November 2001; and in Poland, 11 cases since May 2002.