Feed Controls
In the UK it has been illegal to feed ruminants with all forms of mammalian protein (with specific exceptions) since November 1994 and to feed any farmed livestock, including fish and horses, with mammalian meat and bone meal (mammalian MBM) since 04 April 1996. From 1 July 2005, the TSE Regulation (999/2001) will be in place.
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)
It is clear that the spread of BSE was caused by the consumption of feed containing ruminant protein, in the form of mammalian meat and bonemeal (MMBM), contaminated with the causal agent. That is why feeding ruminant proteins to ruminants (e.g. sheep and cattle) was prohibited in 1988.
The controls have since been progressively tightened in the light of experience and advice from the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee. These further controls were designed to minimise any risk of cross-contamination from other livestock feed, which had been linked to cases of BSE in animals born after the ban. Other measures taken have included a Feed Recall Scheme, conducted in 1996, and tighter controls on Feed Labelling.
EU-wide Feed Controls
In the face of a sharp increase in the number of cases of BSE being reported elsewhere in Europe, including some first homebred cases, the December 2000 Agriculture Council considered the measures necessary to combat TSEs (of which BSE is an example) on an EU wide basis. They agreed measures to be implemented in all Member States, which included a temporary ban on the feeding of processed animal proteins to animals which are kept, fattened or bred for the production of food. These controls were implemented in Great Britain from August 2001.
These requirements formed part of the transitional measures permitting the changeover to the TSE Regulation (999/2001), in place from 1 July 2005. The proposal would provide more time for completion of risk assessments and to ensure that EU rules are fully consistent with those of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).
The controls which follow will only relate to mammalian protein.
Processed Animal Protein
'Processed Animal Proteins' in Decision 2000/766/EC | Cannot be fed to all animals which are kept, fattened or bred for the production of food |
Meat and bone meal, meat meal, bone meal, blood meal,
dried plasma and other blood products, hydrolysed protein,
hoof meal, horn meal, poultry offal meal, feather meal,
dry greaves, fishmeal, dicalcium phosphate, gelatin and any
other similar products including mixtures, feedingstuffs, feed additives and premixtures containing these products. | Exceptions are: · feeding of fishmeal to animals other than ruminants,* · feeding of non-ruminant gelatin used for coating of additives, · dicalcium phosphate* and hydrolysed protein* for feeding to non-ruminants, and · milk and milk products, egg and egg products. * when manufactured in accordance with conditions set out in Regulations. |
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