SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE

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JOINT STATEMENT BY THE UNITED KINGDOM CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICERS

The Chief Medical Officers of each of the four United Kingdom countries have received the latest predictions on the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) epidemic in cattle produced by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the Epidemiology of Infectious Disease at the University of Oxford.

Over the past six months they have reviewed the position of the bone in beef ban in the light of surveillance of the variant Creutzfeldt Jakob (vCJD) incidence in the human population, trends in the BSE epidemic in cattle (including the latest estimates from the Oxford group), and audits of the control measures which are in place to exclude potentially infected BSE material entering the human food chain.

They are reassured by the continuing decline of the BSE epidemic in cattle. In particular the latest Oxford estimate that the number of BSE infected cattle under 30 months which could enter the human food chain within 12 months of clinical infection is now estimated as only 1.2 cattle across Great Britain as a whole in the year 2000 (with a margin of error on this estimate of 0 to 4 cattle).

On the basis of their discussions and this analysis they have concluded that:

1. These circumstances would allow the beef on the bone ban to be lifted for retail sales, whilst allowing consumer choise.
2. In the light of continuing uncertainty about the infectivity of bone marrow (where further experiments are ongoing), the retention of the ban on the use of bones for manufactured and processed products would be prudent.
3. It is important to retain and rigorously enforce other control measures for protecting the human food chain from cattle over 30 months infected with BSE.
4. The human vCJD epidemic should continue to be monitored very closely.
5. New research evidence in relation to any aspect of animal or human transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) should be reviewed as soon as it is available.

Sir David Carter, Chief Medical Officer Scotland
Dr Ruth Hall, Chief Medical Officer Wales
Dr Henrietta Campbell, Chief Medical Officer Northern Ireland
Professor Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer England 

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