EFSA asked to investigate if BSE cases are due to feed ban violations

By Jane Byrne

- Last updated on GMT

© istock.com/&#169 Franck Boston
© istock.com/&#169 Franck Boston

Related tags European union

The European Commission has asked EFSA to deliver a scientific opinion on whether or not cows are getting BSE due to breaches of the EU wide ban on the use of processed animal proteins (PAPs) in feed.

One of the key EU control measures in place to prevent bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) occurring is the prohibition on the use of PAPs in livestock feed.

The measure, which was based on the understanding that BSE can be transferred to cows through contaminated feed in the first year of their lives, was implemented in the EU in 2001 and in 2004 for central and eastern European countries that joined the EU after the initial ban.

There have been 61 cases of BSE in cattle in the EU since the rule was enacted.

In March 2016, the French agriculture ministry confirmed a BSE case in a five-year-old cow on a farm in the Ardennes in the northeastern region of the country, while in June 2015, Ireland also reported that a five-year-old cow on a dairy farm in Louth was infected.

Non-compliance probe

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has now been mandated by the EU executive to determine if such incidents are occurring spontaneously or whether there have been breaches in terms of the PAP feeding prohibition.

In a letter to the Parma based risk assessor late last month, Ladislav Miko, deputy director general of DG Santé, said the cause of the five classical cases of BSE that have occurred between 2006 and 2011 is difficult to ascertain given the fact that the feed ban was in force.

EFSA’s scientific opinion must address what is the most likely origin of these BSE cases, where the animal was born after entry into force of the feed ban, and whether contaminated feeding material can be discounted as the cause of any of these cases.

The Authority, said the Commission, should engage with the authorities in the countries where such BSE cases occurred and evaluate all the data generated by the epidemiological investigations those officials carried out subsequently.

The Commission will look to bring in new risk management approaches should EFSA find that BSE contamination of cows other than through feed or vertical transmission is possible.

Irish case

Feed was not a contributory factor in the cause of the disease in the confirmed case of BSE in Ireland last year, noted the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) in a report last June.

“The test results indicate that this is a case of classical BSE. The investigation has confirmed that this is an indigenous case, born and reared in Ireland. The evidence gathered during the investigation does not support the hypothesis that the case has arisen from vertical transmission from dam to off-spring.

“Furthermore the evidence gathered supports the view that the feed manufacturing and feed supply chain is well controlled and was not a contributory factor in the epidemiology of the disease in this case,”​ concluded DAFM’s investigation.

However, Professor Chris Elliott, director of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen's University in Belfast, told FeedNavigator back then that the affected cow must have been in contact with bone meal at some stage during its early life: "There is no other logical explanation. I agree the evidence shows mother to calf transmission had nothing to do with this BSE case.  But there may have been an old batch of bone meal on the premises that the cow was exposed to years before - so the real question is how and why did such exposure happen?"

The DAFM report revealed the BSE case was an isolated incident. The investigators said the animal concerned was born on January 2010 on a dairy farm that also had an incidence of BSE in the early 2000s. 

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