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Tests conducted on apparently healthy animals in the EU
for infection with BSE (detected post-mortem) reveals that
of 4,154,659 examined between January and August last year
145 were incubating the disease. The positive results were
recorded in France (39 out of 1,389,000 tested), Spain (26
out of 171,493), Germany 24 out of 1,402,601), Belgium (17
out of 206,866), Italy (16 out of 180,860), Ireland (15 out
of 244,411), the Netherlands (4 out of 239,248), Portugal
(2 out of 12,383), Denmark (1 out of 152,840) and Greece (1
out of 8889). None of the 530 animals tested in Great Britain
was positive.
These results were derived from routine surveillance testing
of apparently healthy cattle aged 24 months or more and destined
for the food chain. They exclude “at risk” animals
such as those found dead on farm, those sent for emergency
slaughter, or those found to be sick when presented for normal
slaughter. DEFRA reported in November last year that results
in the UK up to that date indicated that 0.4% of fallen stock
and 0.6% of casualty cattle had tested positive for BSE. These
results, which related to cattle regarded as at high risk
of BSE were not seen as out of line with forecasts and previous
surveys. In the UK the Over-Thirty-Month-Scheme (OTMS) is
reckoned to confine slaughtering for consumption to animals
unlikely to show symptoms of the infection. Older animals,
save from special cohorts with a long BSE-free pedigree, are
slaughtered for destruction. They are mainly cast dairy cows
and breeding bulls. Under pressure from the EU, the UK is
being pushed into added surveillance with testing and restrictions,
as practised in other European countries. Animals may be carriers
of BSE, without showing symptoms, for 6 months before signs
of the disease would be noticed by a farmer or vet. The OTMS
is in many way a disguised subsidy for the dairy/beef/veal
industry.
BSE Lurking as New Scrapie?
Surveillance for scrapie in sheep is being stepped up, as
is implementation of the National Scrapie Plan, which aims
to eradicate the disease from the national flock. Whereas
BSE in cattle is associated with single genetic characteristics,
scrapie – while being a similar prior infection in some
ways to BSE – differs in a wider range of genotypes,
none known to infect human beings. Now, however, the risk
arises that scrapie in sheep may be masking BSE in the infected
animals and this awful possibility cannot be ruled out for
some years, because tests to date have been bungled and inconclusive.
If this possibility becomes a proven fact – “the
worst scenario” – a plan for the slaughter 40m sheep
in the UK over a period of a few years will have to be implemented,
and grievous harm will have been suffered by the community
who have continued to eat sheep meat (and goat meat, and the
milk of both species). The Food Standards Agency equivocates,
seeing no cause at the moment for dietary avoidance of these
products, but with such dubious assurances are they heading
for a Gummer?
As the haggis is piped in on 25 January Scots celebrating
Burns Night might ponder a little on the origins of the ennobled
bag of offals. Veggie haggises can be obtained, and the array
of vegetables could be healthily augmented with, say, some
carrots and greenleafies.
And Muslims and other consumers of halal products should
reflect that their meats are among the likeliest to be risky
if the BSE threat has insinuated itself into British sheep
and goats.
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