This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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World Animal Health Organisation
23/05/2003
Rural Development Minister Ross Finnie today welcomed a
decision that will pave the way for BSE controls for the UK
to be brought into line with those for the rest of
Europe.
The World Animal Health Organisation (OIE) today, at its
annual meeting in Paris, accepted a proposal from the
European Commission to increase thresholds for BSE
categorisation.
The upper threshold for moderate risk status will now be
200 cases per million adult cattle. This puts the UK in
line for passing the upper limit by the end of this year
and will significantly assist any application by the UK for
moderate risk status.
The Minister said:
"I am delighted to hear that our efforts to move towards
parity with the rest of Europe on BSE controls and beef
exports are now a step closer. The Executive has been
working towards this goal for some time.
"We can now formally engage with the EU Commission on
devising a legal framework that recognises the UK will very
soon qualify for BSE moderate risk status and so export on
a level footing without the constraints of the date based
export scheme."
OIE is an intergovernmental body with 162 member
countries, including all EU member states, that sets
international standards for the recognition and control of
animal diseases.
The current threshold for moderate risk status is less
than 100 BSE cases per 1 million adult cattle over 24
months of age.
In the UK the BSE epidemic peaked in 1992 and steadily
declined since.
There were 99 BSE cases in Scotland last year, and 13 so
far this year.
The EU Export ban decision, 98/256, includes the date
based export scheme which restricts the scope for UK beef
export activity.