Brussels, 22/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - During the traditional presentation to the Agriculture Council, on Tuesday, of the state of progress in terms of BSE, Commissioner David Byrne announced a series of new proposals aimed at enhancing the present legislative framework: - extension of suspension on the use of meat meals, which will be accompanied by new measures linked to imports from third countries in which there exist "potential weaknesses"; - the revision of the present approach towards the eradication of BSE in order to derogate, in certain cases, the rule on the systematic slaughtering of entire herds during the emergence of cases; - the lowering of the age from which risk bovines will be the object of BSE screening tests (presently 30 months, to 24 or even 18); - the introduction of screening tests for small ruminants (ovine, caprine).
The Commissioner continued his assessment by presenting the results of the tests carried out until the month of April within the EU: - detection of 75 BSE cases out of 1.75 million tests carried out on bovines taken to the abattoir; - 84 cases found out of more than 150,000 tests on risk cattle (found dead at the farm, urgently slaughtered or sick after inspection); - 3 cases discovered during the inspection of 20,800 bovines in the framework of the BSE eradication; - 280 cases have been found by examining 1,601 clinically suspected bovines. Mr Byrne revealed that the difference between the Member States bears witness to the failure of certain bovine control systems (such as in Spain and in Germany where many cases have been detected in animals on entry to the abattoirs).
Divergences over lowering of age limit for screening tests
The French Agriculture Minister, Jean Glavany, denounced the fact that Germany has decided, unilaterally, to lower to 24 months the age limit of bovines for BSE screening. This decision (which would lead to market losses for the French operators to the benefit of German producers) could lead to France doing the same, by opting for a Community legislative framework to allow for the cofinancing of tests. Fundamentally, Jean Glavany justified the need for this decision, contrary to the information given by the Commission, by the fact that certain cases of BSE have been found in bovines of less than 30 months. Most of the other Ministers felt that such a decision was not justified from the scientific point of view and that it would lead to an increase in spending.