New BSE test less than a year away

03 December 1998

New BSE test ‘less than a year away’

By FWi staff

A NEW test for BSE is less than a year away, Oxford Universitys Roy Anderson has told a European conference in Brussels.

Work on human tissue is currently being developed at St Marys Hospital, London, and could also be performed on live cattle as well as carcasses, Prof Anderson said.

Such a test was an important in terms of reassuring consumers about beef, he told delegates at the Lessons to be learned from the BSE crisis conference.

The test would have been available in the early stages of the crisis if the Government had invested sufficient funds, said Prof Anderson.