FSA Board to consider advice to Ministers on BSE testing system, UK

Main Category: CJD / vCJD / Mad Cow Disease
Article Date: 06 Aug 2005 - 6:00 PDT

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A Food Standards Agency Board meeting will take place in public on 15 August 2005 to consider what advice the Agency will give to Ministers on a BSE testing system, trialled earlier this year as part of a managed transition towards replacing the Over Thirty Months Rule.

The Over Thirty Months (OTM) Rule is the BSE control set up in 1996 that automatically bans older cattle from entering the food chain. The principal food safety measure - the Specified Risk Material (SRM) controls, which removes over 99% of any infectivity in cattle - will remain in place, along with the Feed Ban control.

In July last year the Agency advised Ministers that the OTM Rule was no longer proportionate to the risk, but should not change until an independent group had advised that a robust BSE testing system was in place. The Government accepted the advice in December and asked the Agency to advise on a robust system prior to rule change. As a result, an Independent Group, chaired by Professor Patrick Wall, was set up by the FSA to oversee and advise on testing…. CONTINUES …. THE FOOD STANDARDS AGENCY, UK

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