Extra BSEtesting worth it, claim UK farming groups
Extra BSEtesting worth it, claim UK farming groups
By Philip Clarke
TESTING another 65,000 cattle for BSE to be allowed to continue serving up T-bone steaks is a price worth paying, UK farmer organisations have concluded.
Most other member states have been told to remove the vertebral column from their beef from next April, as the EU clamps down on BSE.
But Brussels has agreed the UK plus Austria, Finland, Sweden and Portugal can be exempt, so long as it tests some 65,000 animals born between Aug 1 1996 and Aug 1 1997, the year after the meat and bonemeal ban became fully effective.
MAFF currently tests about 6500 animals under the EUs scheme for older fallen stock. But it has agreed to the 10-fold increase, so that the UK can keep selling T-bone steaks. "Were not giving up our beef-on-the-bone," said a MAFF spokesman.
This is the right decision, according to the NFU. "Consumer confidence is starting to look a bit wobbly given the bad news about German beef imports, (with spinal cord still attached)," said Brussels director Julie Smith. "We must not confuse them further."
The National Beef Association also believes the additional testing, which is likely to carry a £3m price tag, is worth doing. "The fact that Brussels is prepared to grant the UK an exemption at all is profoundly important," said chief executive Robert Forster.
It means the commission recognises there are effectively two cattle herds in the UK – one born before Aug 1 1996 and one born after. "It is highly likely that the second of these will have the lowest rate of BSE in any country, with no sub-clinical cases entering the human food chain."
lIreland is to apply for its own exemption from the ban on vertebral column, citing its strict controls on meat and bonemeal, and the fact it has had no cases of BSE in animals born after 1996. Ireland has the second highest number of BSE cases in Europe, at 600 since 1989. *