BSE controls review: Food Standards Agency review of BSE controls - executive summary of the final report

Introduction
1.The Food Standards Agency (FSA) was asked, as part of the March 2000 Action Plan for Farming, to review the current BSE controls in relation to the food chain. We undertook the review in an open and transparent way through a series of public meetings with interested parties and with the use of an interactive website. We took account, where appropriate, of the Report of the BSE Inquiry.

2.The scientific uncertainty which characterises BSE means that the current risk management options for protecting the health of the public are precautionary in nature and are aimed at risk reduction in the light of current knowledge. Risk can never be completely eliminated. The options need to be continually reassessed in light of new knowledge and the FSA will continue to evaluate the controls as evidence emerges.

3.We accept the evidence that the most likely explanation for the vCJD cases to date is exposure to the BSE agent. We acknowledge the difficulties of estimating the size of the vCJD epidemic. It was not within the remit of the review to investigate the origins of BSE but we accept that the major route of transmission was through ruminant-derived meat-and-bonemeal (MBM) in animal feed contaminated with the BSE agent (paragraph 18).

4.We consider the course of the BSE epidemic in cattle and the possibility of BSE occurring in sheep and other food animals (paragraphs 19-32).

The Over Thirty Month Rule
5.This rule keeps meat from cattle aged over 30 months at slaughter out of the food chain. Its cost has been substantial. In view of the fact that the existence of the rule is removing from the food chain virtually all cattle close to developing BSE and that since 1997 no cases of BSE have been diagnosed in younger animals, we recommend (paragraphs 44 and 46) that 30 months should remain the age at which controls are most appropriate and that January 2002 is the earliest date on which a decision could be taken to relax it.

Specified risk material (SRM)
6.The controls on SRM are designed to prevent the tissues of slaughtered animals most likely to contain the BSE agent from entering the food and animal feed chain. Those in place for sheep are a potential risk reduction rather than risk elimination measure as BSE has not been found to have occurred naturally in sheep. We make no proposals for immediate change in the controls (paragraph 54) but suggest that they could be amended if reliable diagnostic tests to indicate the absence of TSEs could be developed and introduced on a commercial scale (paragraph 54(v)). For sheep, TSE resistance being successfully bred into the flock under the proposed national programme could enable selectively applied SRM controls to be introduced (paragraph 54(iv)).

The feed ban
7.The aim of this ban is to keep potentially infectious material out of feed for farmed livestock. It began as a ban on feeding ruminant protein to ruminants but has been extended to prohibit the feeding of any mammalian MBM to any farmed livestock. It has been largely effective in arresting the spread of the BSE epidemic and hastening its decline. We see no scope for relaxing the ban on feeding ruminant protein to ruminants (paragraph 58). Other changes should only be considered under clearly defined circumstances (paragraph 66). We recommend that consideration should be given to a ban on intra-species recycling (paragraphs 58 and 66) since such recycling could amplify a new TSE in a species.

Private kills
8.These relate to the slaughter by farmers of their own animals for their own consumption. In such cases the general meat hygiene legislation and certain BSE controls do not apply. Meat from such slaughtering may not be sold for human consumption but there has been confusion about when exactly this prohibition applies. We propose (paragraph 69) that the issue should be addressed so as to safeguard against avoidance of appropriate BSE controls.

Mechanically recovered meat (MRM)
9.MRM is obtained by recovering residually adhering raw meat from bones under high pressure. Its presence is required to be listed on the label of relevant processed meat products but this is difficult to enforce in some cases, due to the lack of ability to detect its incorporation. We see no scope for relaxation of the current prohibition on its production from ruminant vertebral column (paragraph 74) and recommend that further research should be undertaken to develop a method of analysis to detect its presence in meat products (paragraph 73).

Imports
10.We need to ensure that UK consumers are properly protected from the risk of exposure to BSE when consuming imported products. New EU controls which substantially mirror those in place in the UK were introduced or agreed during the course of this review. We welcome this as enhancing protection for UK consumers. Nevertheless we will continue to press for changes at European and international level for enhanced country of origin labelling (paragraph 80).

Costs
11.We have reviewed other areas in which the public’s willingness to pay to avert a death has been assessed. The substantial direct and indirect costs of the BSE controls do not seem to be unreasonable in relation to the number of vCJD cases and assessments in other areas (paragraph 89).

Research
12.We make proposals for various avenues of research which, we recommend, should be prioritised by the TSE R&D Funders Co-ordination Group (paragraph 92). We particularly stress the need for development of diagnostic tests to enable the mass screening of animals at abattoirs (paragraph 90).

EU issues
13.In addition to the recent agreement on new EU BSE controls, we acknowledge the need for any changes we propose to be agreed with the EU Commission and other Member States before they can be implemented (paragraph 93).

The full report