§ Mr. GillTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what representations he has received regarding the use of meat and bonemeal in continental pig production; and if he will make a statement. [14169]
§ Mr. RookerRepresentations have been received from UK pig farmers reflecting their disappointment at the differences between our own controls on feed and those imposed by our European partners.
Farmers in other Member States are permitted to feed meat and bonemeal (MBM) to non-ruminant livestock. In the UK, mammalian MBM has been prohibited from all farmed livestock feed, including pig, since March 1996. This extension of our ban, which formerly only applied to ruminant feed, was introduced on the specific advice of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee to avoid the risk of any cross-contamination between ruminant and non-ruminant feed. Such cross-contamination could lead to the perpetuation of the BSE epidemic in British cattle.
The UK has had far more cases of BSE than other Member States, and that is why we have a range of measures here which go considerably further than those taken elsewhere.