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Revised cattle testing scheme
11/12/2008
Rules on testing cattle for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) will be changed in the New Year following advice received today from the Food Standards Agency.
Richard Lochhead Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs with the agreement of the Health Minister, Shona Robinson, will seek approval from the Scottish Parliament to raise the age at which cattle must be tested for BSE from 24 months to over 48 months from January 1.
Lifting the age limit will ensure Scottish farmers and cattle processors can take immediate advantage of the newly modified EU controls.
Mr Lochhead said:
"By raising the surveillance age at the first available opportunity we will reduce the costs to farmers and enhance business viability.
"For farmers sending adult stock to our abattoirs this will reduce the burden of testing by around a quarter. Furthermore the majority of island producers will be exempt from testing their fallen stock.
"I acknowledge that mainland producers will face additional costs for fallen stock as a consequence of Defra's decision to stop funding the BSE surveillance programme.
"However, I have successfully argued for transitional support and £2 million will be made available in 2009 to ease the financial burden."
Cattle intended for human consumption are currently tested at over 30 months and fallen stock tested for disease surveillance purposes at 24 months. The threshold will increase for all cattle to over 48 months.
Since November 2005, when over thirty months cattle were allowed back into the UK food chain 1.29 million animals have been tested for BSE. Ten were found to be positive and removed from the food chain. The UK Government current spends £20 million on the testing regime.
Risk assessments conducted by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and in the UK by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) have both concluded that there would be no significant public health implications of increasing the testing age to 48 months.
The UK application for revised surveillance has already been approved by the EU. Other original EU 15 Member States are also moving to reduced BSE surveillance.
Reduced surveillance coincides with end of free collection and disposal for farmers notifying fallen stock for BSE testing. From 12 January producers will have to make arrangements for disposal of surveillance fallen stock via an approved BSE sampling site. The UK Government will continue to pay for sampling and testing costs. Furthermore £2 million has been made available to the National Fallen Stock Company (NFSCo) to subsidise disposal in the first year following these changes.