Defra Consult on Rule Changes
UK - The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Welsh Assembly Government and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) have today launched a joint consultation on proposals to raise the age above which cattle must be tested for BSE.

Delay to End of 48-month Limit Could Cost Millions
WALES, UK - The Farmers Union of Wales has reacted angrily to the decision by the Food Standards Agency to await a further report before raising the cattle BSE testing limit to 48 months.

Proposals to Reduce BSE Testing of Cattle
UK - The Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) has been estimating the impact to human health of actioning proposals to reduce BSE testing of cattle slaughtered for food. This will be discussed at the FSA Board meeting today.

EU Raises BSE Cattle Testing Age to 48 Months
UK - EU animal health experts have raised the minimum age for testing cattle for mad cow disease in the EU's 15 'older' countries to 48 months, given fewer cases of the brain-wasting virus, the EU executive said on Tuesday.

Will Britain Back Relaxed EU ‘Mad Cow’ Testing Rules?
UK - Tough controls on beef that protect consumers from the human form of “mad cow” disease may be relaxed in Britain and across the Continent.

Transitional Funding For Fallen Stock
UK - Transitional funding will be made available to farmers for a year to help meet the costs of collection and disposal of cattle requiring BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) testing.

Defra Announces Changes to TSEs Testing
UK - The number of cases of BSE and scrapie, included in a family of brain diseases called Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs), in Great Britain has continued to fall.

More to Prion Protein than Mad Cow Disease?
UK - Prion protein, a form of protein that triggers BSE, is associated with other brain diseases in cattle, raising the possibility of a significant increase in the range of prion disease.

Proposal to Raise BSE Testing Age Welcomed
UK - The EU Commission decision to raise the BSE testing age for all cattle to 48 months from the current 30 months, has been welcomed by the Ulster Farmers’ Union.

NFSCo Prepared to Take on BSE-testing
UK - The National Fallen Stock Company (NFSCo) has told Defra it is willing to take over the job of collecting fallen cattle for BSE testing – but only if the Department contributes towards the cost.

Postmortem Tests Detect More Mad Cows
UK - ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. have announced that its latest postmortem tests on cattle could vastly improve the sensitivity of detecting BSE by as much as 80-fold.

Mad Cow Disease 'a Ticking Timebomb'
UK - Fears of a new wave of deaths caused by the human form of mad cow disease have been triggered by a type of variant CJD never seen before.

Industry to Pay for BSE Controls
UK - The Government has announced plans to shift a range of costs associated with BSE control on to the industry.

Two BSE Untested Heifers Enter Food Chain
UK - Two untested heifers aged over thirty months have entered the food supply without being tested for BSE. However, the Food Standards Agency said as specified risk material (SRM) was removed in both cases it was unlikely that the heifers were infected...

Eurofins Genescan Forms Partnership With VLA In UK
UK - Concern for BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) has become a focal point of feed safety throughout the world.

BSE fears over move to relax farm feed rules
UK - Animal remains could once more be added to farm feed, raising fears of another BSE outbreak, following tests by European scientists.

Swiss BSE Controls Rewarded With Lower Risk Status
UK - The Swiss beef industry was yesterday rewarded for its efforts in controlling bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), when the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) reduced its status to "controlled risk" for the disease.

UK Pressing For 30-Month Beef-On-The-Bone Limit
UK - THE UK Government has pledged to continue to ‘press hard’ for a return to a 30-month beef-on-the-bone limit, following an inconclusive report on the issue by the European Food Standards Authority.

EFSA BSE Report ‘Too Cautious’
UK - British beef producers have hit out at a European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) report on BSE infectivity in specified risk material for not relaxing the rules. The key findings of the EFSA report were that the BSE epidemic in EU is on the declin...

FSA Report BSE Control Breach
UK - The Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) has reported the discovery of spinal cord, which is SRM, in a forequarter of fresh beef despatched from the Republic of Ireland to an approved cutting plant in England.