May 17, 2007

UK cattle farmers hit EFSA report on BSE

A new report on bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) have been lashed by British farmers, EFSA has not relaxed the rules on the infectivity of BSE in specified risk materials (SRM).

However, the report added that the likelihood of the infectivity in SRM derived from cattle of different ages must be based on experimental and incubation case studies in the UK and more recently in Germany, because a scientific consensus based on back calculation modelling could not be achieved.

The report said the BSE infectivity would be undetectable or still absent in the central nervous system of animals aged 33 months. However, at least one field case has shown that a BSE-infected animal was under 33 months old, and this failure to detect the TSE (transmissible spongiform encephalopathy) prion does not guarantee absence of the infectivity in a tissue. EFSA's earlier opinion of April 2005 that detectable infectivity in the central nervous system appears to be 75 per cent (33 months) of the shortest total incubation time, which is 45 months, is still valid.

The UK's National Farmers' Union (NFU) livestock board chairman Thomas Binns said EFSA's report was "overly-cautious" approach and "there has not been any improvements on the positive position since April 2005 when we got the green light to restart exports". Binns continued saying "the rules in place have to be proportionate to the risk and we shouldn't be afraid of relaxing them when new science indicates it is safe to do so.

Binns lamented that SRM controls mentioned in the report could have been relaxed and the NFU will still continue to push for this age limit to be reset at 30 months. He said this would be a significant step forward from the current 24 months situation which Binn termed has "caused regulatory problems and much disruption".

Binns praised Defra for its support on the NFU, stating the British agriculture ministry will actively campaign and advocate NFU on UK's cattle export restoration and competitiveness.