Brussels, 03/02/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday EU Member States meeting at the Standing Committee on Food Safety and Animal Welfare approved the proposal to step up testing for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in the EU goat population, following the confirmation last week of the first case of BSE found in a goat (EUROPE 29 January p 13). The Commission is proposing increased testing in goats to determine if this is an isolated incident.
The Commission is proposing increased testing in goats for at least 6 months (176 000 tests of healthy goats in the EU and 25 000 goats dead on farm). The extent of the monitoring programme will be based on the goat population in each Member State and will focus primarily on Member States where BSE is present in the cattle population. All confirmed TSE cases will be subjected to a three-step testing scheme, already in use, which will make it possible to differentiate between scrapie and BSE.
The situation will be closely monitored and reviewed at the latest after six months, based on the results of the increased testing and the outcome of a quantitative risk assessment on the safety of goat meat currently being carried out by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), expected next July, following the confirmation last week of the first case of BSE found in a goat. Markos Kyprianou, EU Commissioner responsible for Health and Consumer Protection, said “Our priority is to safeguard the health of Europe's citizens”. The EFSA concluded in a preliminary recommendation of 26 November 2004 that it was “unlikely that milk and milk products from healthy goats presented any risk of TSE.” Community authorities provided assurances that if any new elements emerged they would immediately be subject to scientific analysis.
Any possibility of transmitting BSE to small ruminants has been taken into account for a number of years in order to guarantee a high level of public health protection. Community safeguard measures in force include a ban on animal flour, the withdrawal from slaughterhouses and the destruction of at risk tissues (brain, spines, spleen and part of the intestines) as well the slaughter of herds infected by scrapie. Scrapie is a TSE, which in natural conditions can affect sheep and goats. It is similar to BSE in clinical symptoms but cannot be transmitted to humans. Goat scrapie is a disease that must be declared to the authorities. Therefore, if abnormal behaviour is observed in an animal, the owner has to call a vet. If the vet diagnoses suspected scrapie and this is confirmed, the animal is slaughtered. The whole herd is slaughtered if one case of scrapie is detected. As well as this clinical monitoring system, tests carries out on slaughtered goats at the abattoir or sent for rendering to establish the presence of scrapie (the proportion of cases or animals infected by the disease). This programme has allowed for 140,000 goat brains to be examined in Europe. If it is present, the animal carcase is destroyed as well as the original herd.
The discovery of BSE in a slaughtered goat in France in 2002, announced on 28 October 2004 by the French and Community authorities (EUROPE 30 October 2004) was confirmed on Friday by a scientific panel designated by the European Commission. The Commission rapidly responded and announced its intention to increase the number of BSE tests on goats. Following the green light by EU experts, the Commission now has to officially adopt these measures that will enter into force when they are published in the Official Journal.