Brussels, 08/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 8 March, as expected, veterinary experts from Member States on the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health unanimously adopted a favourable opinion on the European Commission proposal for a total lifting of the embargo on British beef (EUROPE 9146). The Commission is counting on adopting this proposal in about a month's time, allowing the European Parliament, if it wants, the time to submit an opinion on the matter (Parliament has a month to do this).
In order to benefit from a total lifting of the embargo, the United Kingdom still has to adapt its legislation and reduce its current age limit of 30 months for the removal of the vertebral column to 24 months in order to comply with regulation in force in the rest of the EU. The lifting of the embargo will mean the United Kingdom can export beef meat, including beef-on-the bone and live animals in respect of Community legislation, which stipulates that animals of more than 30 months are tested when slaughtered and that rules of traceability are established. During recent years, the United Kingdom has not been able to export beef meat aged between 6 and 30 months or de-boned meat for animals over 9 months old, with strict traceability rules and proof that the mother of the animal had not developed bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
BSE peaked in the United Kingdom in 1992 with 37,280 cases and fell to 161 cases in 2005, the majority of these cases involving animals born before 1996. In total, around 185,000 cases of BSE have been confirmed in the United Kingdom, more than 95% of which were diagnosed before the year 2000.