Fears that exports of British calves to the Continent
could be banned have been allayed, following a meeting of EU vets
in Brussels on Wednesday (23 July).
The vets were discussing what to do following the revelation
that 12 calves infected with bovine TB-infected had been exported
from the UK to Holland sometime in May (News, 18 July).
Even though the herd from which they came appeared TB-free at
the time, it subsequently went down with the disease, as did the
exported calves.
The
Dutch trade and farming industry was furious at the breakdown
in bio-security, and last week demanded an export ban.
But the
EU
Commission has sought a more proportionate response, accepting
that the incident was a "one off".
Initially it tabled a proposal to the influential SCOFCAH
committee, made up of EU member state vets, which would have
significantly tightened the TB testing regime for British farms to
the extent that
calf exports would have been unviable.
But, following intervention by UK officials in Brussels, the
SCOFCAH committee was persuaded that the plans would be
massively disruptive to the trade and would achieve little. "Even
with this additional testing, it would not have prevented the
export of these calves to Holland," said an official.
The UK was not totally off the hook, he added. "The EU
Commission is still keeping our TB control programme under
scrutiny," he said. "A number of Food and Veterinary Office reports
have identified perceived shortcomings - for example in the
frequency of testing and the use of parishes as control areas. They
may come back on this in future."
