Bolt gun puts brain material into meat

22 May 2001



Bolt gun puts brain material into meat

By FWi staff

CAPTIVE-BOLT guns used to slaughter nearly 40% of Britains sheep could contaminate carcasses with brain material, claim veterinary scientists.

In experiments funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, the team from Bristol University discovered that the gun could spread brain material into the bloodstream and meat.

The Times says this raises fears that the use of captive-bolt guns could create a risk of spreading the human form of BSE.

There is absolutely no evidence that BSE has infected the national flock, although it is possible to deliberately infect sheep with BSE in the laboratory.

Research is taking place to determine whether sheep can carry BSE which is widely believed to be the cause of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The findings are reported in the Veterinary Record.

• BSE epidemic had little effect on scrapie figures, FWi, 23 March, 2001
• Its official: No BSE in British flock, FWi, 22 December, 2000
  
• The Times, 22 May, 2001, page 7
  

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