BSE prompts foot-and-mouth rethink

24 May 2001



BSE prompts foot-and-mouth rethink

By Alistair Driver

GOVERNMENT advisers have met to discuss concerns that mad-cow disease could be spread by the burial of foot-and-mouth carcasses.

The Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee met on Thursday (24 May) to discuss how foot-and-mouth controls might expose humans to BSE.

The major concern is over the governments policy of burning and burying of cattle over 30 months old that have been culled because of foot-and-mouth.

Burning older cattle has raised fears that BSE-infected material could spread on the wind. Burying them could contaminate the water supply, it is feared.

Speaking before the meeting, SEAC member Peter Janion said: “Both questions will be looked at to see what the level of risk is, if any.”

Mr Janion, vice-president of the British Veterinary Association, said the group would review the risks from the disposal of foot-and-mouth carcasses.

It will then update the government about whether it needs to change its policy.

Advisers have already concluded that cattle should not be buried if they were born after 01 August, 1996, when new BSE controls came in.

More than 100,000 cattle have been buried or put in landfill so far and some older animals have had to be exhumed, said a MAFF spokeswoman.

The Environment Agency prefers to bury ash from burnt carcasses on the site of the pyre. But a lot of ash piles have still not been buried.

In the Torridge area of Devon alone, regional Environment Agency officials admit there are still about 40 unburied ash piles.

A spokesman for the agency in south-west England said the situation regarding BSE and foot-and-mouth would be reassessed after the SEAC meeting.

Anthony Gibson, National Farmers Union director in the south-west, said fears over the risk of BSE spreading from slaughtered cattle were ridiculous.

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