The 鈥渉ighly likely鈥� presence of BSE in eastern Europe, announced this week by the European Commission, means nearly a fifth of the European Union鈥檚 meat imports have been coming from suspect countries that have applied no BSE safeguards, 快猫短视频 has learned.
These countries may now only sell the EU meat that has been subjected to some 鈥� but not all 鈥� of the safeguards the EU requires of its own meat producers.
The Commission鈥檚 risk assessments were based on whether the country imported cattle or meat from countries with BSE, and on whether cattle were recycled as feed, the route of BSE transmission (快猫短视频, 10 June 2000 p 4).
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The Commission used this method last year to conclude that countries such as Germany, Spain and Italy were 鈥渉ighly likely鈥� to be infected 鈥� all have now declared BSE.
Ten countries judged 鈥渉ighly unlikely鈥� to have BSE will be excused from these precautions. The Commission wants Brazil excused as well, even though it imported more than 6000 potentially infected cattle from Europe and fed cattle remains to cattle until February 2001. Last year Brazil exported 32 per cent more meat to the EU than the total from all the eastern European countries assessed.
Spinal cord
The countries judged to have BSE must now ensure there are no high-risk tissues, especially brain and spinal cord, in meat they sell the EU. The Commission says its verdicts also 鈥渟hould be of considerable interest to the public health authorities鈥� wishing to protect their own consumers.
Meat from infected countries will not be subject to other EU safeguards, such as the ban on feeding cattle to cattle, or tests for BSE in abattoirs. Those tests became mandatory in January in the EU and by March had kept 38 mad cows off supermarket shelves.
The Commission thinks infection is 鈥渉ighly likely鈥� in six candidates for EU membership 鈥� Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Cyprus, Estonia and the Czech Republic. It 鈥渃annot be excluded鈥� in India, Pakistan, Mauritius and Colombia. The countries deemed safe include Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and Botswana. The Commission will assess 17 more countries in May, including China, Thailand and Israel.
The five eastern European candidate countries exported 164,000 tonnes of meat to the EU last year, according to Eurostat, the EU statistics service in Luxembourg. That is small compared to a domestic production of 35 million tonnes. But in the EU, infected countries discard high-risk tissues.
Related stories: BSE special section