Your response: from Mr Roger Silbey

Are you representing a special interest group?

No

Comment:

I am not at all convinced that adequate food control measures are in place to protect the public from vCJD/BSE for the following reasons:

1. As there is still no means of testing live animals for BSE I fail to understand how any confidence can be placed in the figures for declining infectivity of the British herd, when animals over 30 months are being slaughtered before symtons show. I presume a number of animals are sampled and allowed to mature beyond 30 months for evaluation, however given the lamentable standards so far displayed in conducting relevant and timely research and the poor monitoring of other precautionary regulations it is unwise for consumers to rely on this.

2. There appears to have been no effort made to certify BSE free herds, to provide cross contamination free transport and slaughtering facilities for such animals, nor any scheme to allow consumers to identify such meat in the shop, nor to ensure that cross contamination does not occur within the shops. Such herds must exist and could by now be substantial in number if BSE had been responsibly handled. It appears that farms with such high standards are being sacrificed so that greater quantities of dubious meat can reach the consumer.

3. It is still doubtful that all abattoirs are working to the highest standards and enforcing the regulations

4. The failure to bring civil servants and ministers to book for their gross dereliction of duty and far too lenient sentances on farmers and abbatoirs that broke the BSE regulations is still sending out the wrong signals as to how serious this matter is. It does not inspire confidence that todays regulations are being enforced with vigour.

5. There is evidence that the storage and transport of the ground up remains of the slaughtered cattle is being carelessly managed and without the necessary investment in a proper infrastructure. Given all the uncertainties about the infection route to animals and humans this is disgraceful and gives further concern that there is still a gross failure at the heart of government.