§ Lord Skelmersdaleasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their latest advice on BSE.
The Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Earl Howe)The Government's chief medical officer continues to advise that there is no evidence that humans can contract Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease from an animal with BSE. There has been no significant increase in the incidence of CJD in the UK over the years 1985 to 1993. Also the chief veterinary officer advises that the incidence of BSE among cattle in the UK continues to fall as a result of the control measures that have been put in place. There has been a particularly sharp decline in the incidence of the disease in cattle less than five years old.
A large number of monitoring and research studies have been undertaken into BSE since 1988 and these continue. They include a BSE pathogenesis experiment which has involved the feeding of calves with a high dose of BSE-infected brain tissue. Some preliminary positive results from the BSE pathogenesis experiment will be published shortly in the Veterinary Record. The experiment, begun in December 1991 and still continuing, is designed to investigate the biological pathways through which the disease develops in cattle.
These results show that it is possible to transmit BSE to laboratory mice from intestines taken from young cattle when fed a substantial dose of brain material known to contain BSE. It is not surprising that BSE has been found in these tissues, which scientists have always considered a likely route for feedborne infection. 72WA The relatively short period in which the infectivity has shown up, in one case six months after being fed the BSE dose, does however raise the issue of whether calves up to six months should continue to be exempt from the ban on the use of specified bovine offals (SBOs), of which the intestine is one.
My right honourable Friends the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Secretary of State for Health have sought the advice of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) and have considered this with the chief medical officer. The committee noted the reduced risk of feedborne infection following the ban on feeding ruminant protein to ruminants such as cattle which was introduced in 1988, and the continuing lack of evidence of significant maternal or horizontal transmission. They concluded that the theoretical risk of infection of man from food from infected calves is minuscule. They advised that the continuing results of the experiment should be carefully monitored to confirm this basic conclusion.
My right honourable friend the Minister has carefully considered this advice in consultation with the other Agriculture Ministers and the Secretary of State for Health. They have concluded while the assessment of SEAC and of the CMO is that any risk to health is minuscule, the Government's policy of extreme caution in relation to BSE requires us to ensure that the tissues in which infectivity might occur are removed from the human and animal food chain. We accordingly propose to extend the scope of the existing ban on the use of specified bovine offals to the intestines and thymus of calves under the age of six months. An exception will be made for calves which die before two months of age which cannot be used for human consumption under other existing legislation. The necessary orders will be duly made with the minimum of delay. This action is purely precautionary and will be kept under review.
My right honourable friend intends to give particular thought to the possible scope for alternative safeguards less restrictive than those now in place in the case of cattle from herds which have not been exposed to BSE. Such an approach is now becoming appropriate as the epidemic continues to decline.
I should repeat that the chief medical officer continues to advise that there is no evidence whatever that BSE causes Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD) and, similarly, not the slightest evidence that eating beef or hamburgers causes CJD.
A background document giving more detailed information about the experimental results and the advice of SEAC, the CMO and the CVO is avilable in the House Library.
My right honourable friend has informed the EU Commission and the EU Scientific Veterinary Committee of the action being taken.