Brussels, 13/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Scientific Steering Committee (SSC), which advises the European Commission on the question of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), has just concluded that the disease is likely to be present in Lithuania's herd. On the other hand, the SSC considers as very unlikely the presence of cattle infected by BSE in herds in Botswana, Namibia, Nicaragua and Swaziland.
Since 1990, Lithuania has imported 1,900 head of cattle and 80,000 tonnes of meat and bone meal from EU countries. The appropriate measures for risk management, such as the ban on cattle feed using animal flour and the control of this ban, were not taken until very recently. This is why the SSC considers it is very likely that the Lithuanian herd has been exposed to potentially BSE-contaminated animal feed and that some animals have been infected.
The conclusions of the SSC evaluation for Botswana, Namibia, Nicaragua and Swaziland are based on the fact that the imports of potentially infected cattle or potentially contaminated bone and meat meal to these countries were always "negligible". Nonetheless, the committee points out that the evaluations should be revised if larger imports of cattle or bone meal effectively took place. The SSC recommends that the aspects linked to BSE are, as far as is possible, included in the programme of the future inspection mission of the FVO, in order to gain the confirmation of the information received by the national authorities of the countries concerned.
The geographic risk of BSE has already been assessed in all the Member States and in a first series of third countries (Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, United States, Norway, New Zealand, Paraguay, Switzerland and Uruguay). Assessments are underway for 25 other countries that have submitted a dossier to the Commission. The Commission hopes that they will be finished during the next meeting of the SSC, end March.
The assessment of the risk in third countries is included in the prospect of the application, as of 1 April, of the Community measures concerning specific risk materials (SRM) to imports of bovine meat.