THE European Parliament is calling for tough new measures to prevent the spread of BSE and the equivalent disease in sheep.
Supporters of the plan, outlined in a report by German Socialist MEP Dagmar Roth-Berendt, argue that European Commission proposals to intro-duce Union-wide epidemiological tests on animals would not protect public health adequately.
Two years ago, the Commis-sion unveiled plans for new EU legislation which would introduce mandatory ‘rapid diagnostic tests’ on carcasses to establish whether or not animals were diseased. Since then, several member states such as France have announced plans to introduce these tests, which allow authorities to determine whether the animal died from BSE.
The proposal, drafted by Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler and former consumer chief Emma Bonino, is largely aimed at ensuring uniform testing standards throughout the Union. Experts argue that this is especially crucial when animals are slaughtered in one member state and transported to another to be sold for human or animal consumption.
But the Commission’s plan would leave it largely up to individual member states to decide where to conduct such tests, and most countries have already said that they favour limiting them to regions where problems have been found.
In a series of amendments set to be adopted at the Parliament’s plenary session next week, MEPs are calling for rapid diagnostic tests to be carried out more systematically. They are also calling for entire herds of animals to be removed from the food chain in the event of a problem as a strategy for controlling BSE – an approach staunchly resisted by the Commission.
The Parliament also insists that it should be involved in all fundamental decisions relating to the prevention of mad cow disease, even though it only has a limited say in EU farm policy.