030721 UK Recommends Relaxing BSE Beef Rules

London - Britain's Food Standards Agency will recommend a relaxation of rules on the sale of older cattle in favor of extensive testing, years after controls were introduced to stem the deadly human form of mad cow disease the agency said Thursday.

It was recommending the ban on meat from cattle aged over 30 months be replaced with testing of older animals in two stages for mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the agency said in a statement.

Cattle born after August 1996 could be allowed into the UK food chain after being tested for BSE at the earliest from January 2004, it said.

And if the over 30 months rule is replaced, then any cattle testing positive for BSE would have to be destroyed, the FSA said.

The UK ban on meat from cattle aged over 30 months was introduced in 1996 when scientists made a probable link between mad cow disease and variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (vCJD) in humans.

"Our view is that replacing the over 30 months rule with testing is acceptable on public health grounds," FSA chief John Krebs said.

"We were also mindful that 99% of any possible infectivity is removed by other BSE controls and that there has been a continual and steep decline of BSE in the UK," he added.

The number of clinical cases of BSE in Britain has fallen rapidly in recent years. From a peak of more than 37,000 in 1992, the figure dropped to less than 600 last year.

To date, 137 people have died from vCJD in Britain, but it is still unclear as to how many more individuals might be at risk.

But Britain's Consumer's Association, worried that the new testing procedures might be introduced too early, was cautious.

"The FSA's recommendations come with a major caveat, that these changes should be introduced if, and only if, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) can show that such a testing system can effectively put into operation and enforced," a Consumer's Association spokeswoman said.

"If that means testing begins after the January 2004 start date that has been mooted by the FSA, then so be it," she added.

Britain's National Farmer's Union (NFU) broadly welcomed the recommendations, but said it was concerned that the cutback in slaughtering would have negative effect on producer prices.

"If the government accepts the recommendation, we could expect significant volumes of additional beef to come onto the market, and probably more from overseas," Stephen Rossides, head of the NFU's food, health and science unit, said.

The change to the over 30 months rule also applies to beef imported into the UK.

Rossides said the NFU was confident the FSA recommendations would be approved.

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