§ Mr. DawsonTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps he has taken to ensure that no imported meat is from animals fed on animal by-products. [25613]
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will take steps to prohibit the import of pigmeat from animals fed meat and bonemeal; and if he will make a statement. [26396]
548W
§ Mr. Rooker[holding answer 28 January 1998]: Conditions on lntra-Community trade in meat, and third country imports, are subject to Community rules. These do not include requirements relating to the feed of the animals from which the meat was obtained. Commission Decision 94/381/EC prohibits the feeding of mammalian protein, with certain exceptions, to ruminants. In addition, Switzerland has equivalent provisions in its national legislation. Thus, all countries which have reported cases of BSE in home-bred animals have restrictions on the feeding of mammalian protein to ruminants.
Within the UK, to prevent the risk of cross examination between different types of feed, there is also a ban on feeding mammalian meat and bone meal to all farmed livestock. The UK has had far more cases of BSE than anyone else and that is why our measures go considerably further than those taken elsewhere.