FDF welcomes BSE OTM decision
UK - The UK’s Food and Drink Federation has welcomed the government’s decision to accept advice from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to replace the Over Thirty Months (OTM) rule with BSE testing. The decision will mean meat from...

BSE ban on older cattle dropped
UK - The nine-year ban on the human consumption of beef produced from cattle aged over 30 months is being lifted, the government has announced. The ban was imposed after the outbreak of BSE or "mad cow disease". Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett...

BSE ban on older cattle dropped
UK - The nine-year ban on the human consumption of beef produced from cattle aged over 30 months is being lifted, the government has announced. The ban was imposed after the outbreak of BSE or "mad cow disease". Environment Secretary...

'Phantom BSE threat' is dynamite for science
UK - The prion theory has been at the centre of the science on spongiform encephalopathy for three decades - before the disease was even diagnosed in cattle as BSE in 1986. Two scientists have received the Nobel Prize for their work on the theory and...

'Phantom BSE threat' is dynamite for science
UK - The prion theory has been at the centre of the science on spongiform encephalopathy for three decades - before the disease was even diagnosed in cattle as BSE in 1986. Two scientists have received the Nobel Prize for their work on the theory...

Mad cow disease came from humans suggests new theory
UK - Mad cow disease may have originated from human remains mixed into cattle feed, according to a controversial new theory. A leading British expert on BSE believes there is strong evidence for linking the brain disease - which gave rise to variant...

Mad cow disease came from humans suggests new theory
UK - Mad cow disease may have originated from human remains mixed into cattle feed, according to a controversial new theory. A leading British expert on BSE believes there is strong evidence for linking the brain disease - which gave rise to...

NFU calls for action over new BSE testing
UK - The Food Standards Agency's recommendation to replace the Over 30 Months Scheme with robust BSE testing systems has been praised by the National Farmers' Union. Source: This is Devon

Sheep can pass BSE to their lambs
UK - BSE has been shown to spread naturally between sheep for the first time. It passed from mother to lamb, before or during birth, in an experimentally infected flock. But if the study shows the infection spreads more generally within the flock, that...

New BSE Testing To 'Cast Off Shackles'
UK - The Food Standards Agency's (FSA) recommendation to lift the Over Thirty Months Scheme (OTMS) and replace it with robust BSE testing systems for British beef has been praised by the National Farmers' Union. From the moment Ministers announced in...

BSE transmitted between sheep
UK - BSE has been transmitted naturally between sheep for the first time, a study has shown. Confirmation that such a thing is possible reinforces fears that the disease may have entered sheep as well as cattle on farms in Britain. The revelation that...

Farm leaders describe OTMS decision as a boost
UK - Farm leaders have welcomed the news that the Food Standards Agency has recommended to government it can replace the Over Thirty Month scheme with a BSE testing regime. NFU livestock chairman Richard Haddock said: “We are delighted the efforts...

Ministers plan tough BSE tests
UK - The government will promise tough penalties for farmers or abattoirs which breach planned new BSE testing rules for cattle, it emerged yesterday. The Food Standards Agency has recommended that the measure which keeps most animals over 30 months...

BSE meat curbs to be eased
UK - The long-awaited lifting of the anti-BSE measure that keeps meat from older cattle out of food may finally happen in November, nearly 10 years after the rule was introduced. The Food Standards Agency is expected to recommend to ministers today...

FSA to discuss transition of BSE rules
UK - The UK’s food standards agency will meet next week to discuss a new BSE testing system trialled earlier this year as part of a managed transition towards replacing the Over Thirty Months Rule. This rule, which was set up in 1996, automatically...

FSA Board to consider advice to Ministers on BSE testing system
UK - 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...

Light at end of tunnel for older beef cattle
UK - Expectations have been mounting in the farming and processing sectors that, after almost ten years, beef from cattle aged over 30 months of age might be allowed back into the human food chain. There has been a succession of false dawns over the...

Compensation rates threaten herd sizes
UK - This year was always going to be difficult for the Scottish beef industry, which earns 30% of our total income from agriculture. Expectations, some based more on hope than commercial reality, were that there would be a resumption of beef exports...

BSE cluster triggers fears over contaminated feed
UK - A cluster of BSE is being investigated by scientists who fear that contaminated feed is still being given to British cattle, nearly 10 years after it was banned. The cluster involving three young cows born long after the 1996 ban on contaminated...

BSE efforts win review's approval
UK - An independent review has endorsed the controls put in place to eliminate BSE. Professor William Hill of the University of Edinburgh investigated why cases of BSE are still occurring despite the 1996 ban on feed containing animal protein and the...