BSE cases at lowest level since recording started
UK - BSE was identified in the UK in 1986. Since then more than 183,000 cases have been confirmed in the UK, of which more than 95% were detected before 2000. The epidemic peaked at an annual total of more than 37,000 clinical cases in 1992, and the...

Beginning of end to otm rule
UK - The British beef industry can look forward to a boost following the announcement of the start of a managed transition towards the lifting of the Over Thirty Month rule says Meat and Livestock Commission Director General Kevin Roberts. Today’s...

Phasing-out of meat ban marks end of BSE crisis
UK - The ban on meat from cattle aged 30 months or older is to be phased out, a year and a half after Government advisers declared that the risk to the public from BSE was negligible. The belated announcement, which effectively signals the official...

BSE cattle ban to be phased out
UK - The automatic ban on cattle over 30 months old being sold as meat is to be phased out, the government has said. The Over Thirty Month rule, which stops older cattle from entering the food chain, was introduced to combat the spread of BSE - or mad...

Independent expert to review Defra's work on BSE
UK - Professor William Hill FRS, Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences of the University of Edinburgh has been appointed by Defra to carry out an independent review of their work on BSE cases born...

Farmer fined over BSE risk
UK - A farmer who failed to implement measures to prevent the spread of BSE to the human food chain has been fined hundreds of pounds. Charles Harwood pleaded guilty to five animal health offences before magistrates in Leamington last Thursday. He was...

Safety expert calls for end to BSE cattle culls
UK - A leading food safety expert has called for an end to cattle culling rules imposed to reduce the risk of BSE, which he claims are redundant and a waste of billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. Professor Hugh Pennington, a world-renowned expert...

Safety expert calls for end to BSE cattle culls
UK - A leading food safety expert has called for an end to cattle culling rules imposed to reduce the risk of BSE, which he claims are redundant and a waste of billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. Professor Hugh Pennington, a world-renowned expert...

BSE and offspring cull compensation
UK - Revised compensation rates applicable to the BSE and offspring cull compensation schemes effective for the month of November 2004 are in the following table. Compensation payable for an animal slaughtered because it is suspected of being affected...

UK beef restrictions 'must end'
UK - The government must do more to end "outrageous" restrictions on the export of British beef, the Conservatives say. The UK no longer has the highest amount of BSE in Europe but it is the only country with limitations on exports. A ban ended five...

U.K. Health Office Says Prevalence of Mad Cow May Have Peaked
UK - There's statistically significant evidence that the U.K.'s mad-cow disease epidemic may have peaked, the country's Department of Health said. Source: Bloomberg

EU ban on British beef could be lifted
UK - EU embargo measures on British beef could be lifted next year, following a sharp fall in recorded cases of mad cow disease in Britain, according to a European Commission report. "A proposal to lift the UK embargo might be envisaged in 2005," said...

Failures let cattle slip through BSE safety net, agency finds
UK - A series of failures allowed cattle into the human food chain without being tested for BSE, an investigation by the Food Standards Agency has found. The FSA started an inquiry in June after it emerged that "casualty" cattle - sick or injured animals...

QMS chief calls on ministers to lift beef export restrictions
UK - The government was yesterday urged to begin unwinding the over 30 months scheme, which has prevented more than six million older cattle from entering the food chain since the BSE crisis of March 1996. Jim Walker, the chairman of Quality Meat Scotland,...

FSA appoints independent experts for inquiry into BSE test errors
UK - The UK’s Food Standards Agency has announced the appointment of an independent steering group to oversee an inquiry into recent failures to test some cattle for BSE. Earlier this month, the FSA announced an investigation into an apparent failure...

Disease is not a new form of BSE
UK - A new brain disease has emerged to threaten cattle, DEFRA has confirmed. But department officials have scotched fears that the disease is a new form of BSE. Press articles this week (w/e June 11) raised concerns of a "new and mysterious brain disease"...

Agency to investigate failures in BSE testing programme UK
UK - The Food Standards Agency (UK)is investigating an apparent failure by the Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) to test some casualty cattle aged between 24 and 30 months for BSE before they entered the food chain. Source: MedicalNewsToday

BSE outbreak in sheep could lead to cull of 25m animals
UK - Up to 25 million sheep, two-thirds of the national flock, might be destroyed if the nightmare of BSE spreading from cattle to sheep were proved to have occurred. Contingency plans which were published by the government yesterday made clear there...

Study predicts increase in British vCJD cases
UK - An analysis of thousands of samples of appendix tissue in the United Kingdom (UK) suggests that the number of future cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob (vCJD) disease there could turn out to be higher than expected. Source: CIDRAP News