Brussels, 15/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - The appearance, for the first time, of a case of Mad Cow in Italy (Saturday) and in Austria (Sunday), two of the rare Member States until now to have remained safe from the epizootic (only Sweden and Finland remain so), did not seem to surprise the European Commission. Commenting on this news, the spokesperson for the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Safety, David Byrne, recalled, this Monday, that these two first cases were not yet scientifically confirmed and that, if they are, "this would not be surprising" given that the scientific assessment of the geographic risk of BSE (bovine encephalopathy spongiform), based upon the trade in animal meals between the United Kingdom and the other Member States, and published last July by the SSC (see EUROPE of 2 August 1999, p.4), had revealed that: 1) for Austria, the risk of the appearance of case of BSE where improbable, but could not be discounted; 2) for Italy the risk being susceptible of being present, at levels below the ceiling for detection by the monitoring system in place.
Following this reminder, the spokesperson felt that the appearance of these new cases was due to the huge systematic BSE screening programme with risk cows of more than thirty months, implemented by the Member States since the start of January, as required by Community legislation. "It is the proof that we must remain vigilant and the Community anti-Mad Cow legislation must be fully respected", she added.
Questioned over the founding of the opinion given by the Union Scientific Steering Committee on the pertinence of the bilateral measures adopted by certain Member States to protect themselves against the BSE epidemic (see yesterday's EUROPE p.15 and of 12 January, p.12), beyond the precautions imposed by Community legislation, the spokesperson added that the Commission conclusions, elaborated on the basis of this opinion, where being finalised, and would be made public this week, at the earliest on Tuesday.
"We are looking into issues raised by the Agriculture Council on 4 December to determine if it would be appropriate to extend the list of specific risk materials (ED: animal offal in which the infectious agents are concentrated and this in order to ban their use in the animal and human food chain), by determining, for example, if the spleen must be part of it and if it is appropriate to ban animal fats". In other words, the Commission is carefully studying the opinion of the SSC to determine if the bilateral measures must be lifted or, on the contrary, integrated into Union legislation, for those which have been judged scientifically founded.
Questioned over the existence of contamination risks through milk, the spokesperson was formal: "according to the opinion of Union scientific experts, for the moment, the risk of transmission through milk is excluded. The research works must not be used to raise fears with consumers", she stated.
Concerning the implementation, the results and effectiveness of the screening programmes in the Member States, a first general debate will take place, Tuesday, between the Commission and the EU 15 experts gathered within the Standing Veterinary Committee (SVC). 15 January being, in fact, the cut off date set by the Commission for the Member States to answer the questionnaire sent to them on this issue in order to enable it to have an idea and draw-up an assessment of the situation (see EUROPE of 12 January, p.12).
Mrs Schreyer confirms need for amending budget of around EUR 970 million to
cover cost of additional measures
The Commissioner for the Budget Michaele Schreyer, confirmed on Monday on the Deutschland Radio Berlin radio station that the Commission estimated at EUR 970 million the cost of the additional measures, which will be financed by the EU to fight against the Mad Cow epidemic. This figure, which must still be refined in relation to the implementation of these various measures by the Member States, already raised by the Commission at the start of December (see EUROPE of 7 December, p.9). The Commission will have to formally present this proposal "in the weeks to come" through an additional amending budget.