§ Mr. BoswellTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he proposes to take any further action in the light of the Southwood report on bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
§ Mr. Gummer[pursuant to the reply, 13 June 1989, c. 352]: All bovine animals which are found to have BSE are slaughtered and destroyed. Meat from these animals does not enter the food chain either for human or animal consumption. Earlier this year my predecessor announced that he would take a further precaution which would be to exclude certain bovine offals derived from healthy animals. Further technical studies have now been carried out and additional independent expert advice has been taken. The offals affected are brain, spinal cord, thymus, spleen, tonsils and intestines. A full consultation with all interested parties as required by law has now been completed with one exception, subject to results in this final case, we are proposing to make new regulations today to implement the ban to come into effect on Monday 13 November.
Offals from calves under six months of age will be excluded from these arrangements since any of these offals which may be used for human food will not present a human health hazard. There are no known cases of human beings being infected by any animal encephalopathy. This is a further addition to the very tough measures which Sir Richard Southwood's expert committee recommended earlier this year.