Vol. 559 No. 2
53 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he plans to heed the advice of a person (details supplied) that every cow and sheep entering the food chain should be tested for BSE and related diseases. [25947/02]
I am aware of recent reports in The Sunday Times of a statement referred to that all meat intended for human consumption should be screened for BSE. This report comes in the wake of work by a team at the University of California which indicated that certain skeletal muscles of mice experimentally infected with scrapie may contain infectivity and may reproduce prions. The EU's Scientific Steering Committee has concluded that the parameters of this research do not justify its extrapolation into BSE in cattle, and that there is no reason to revise its opinions with regard to the safety of bovine and sheep muscles. In addition, the results of other experiments in relation to possible infectivity in the muscle tissues of cattle and sheep, including work reported by the French Food Safety Authority on 27 March 2002, have been consistently negative.
Consumers and others can be assured that a comprehensive range of measures remains in place in Ireland for the control and eradication of BSE. These controls include, inter alia, a requirement to test all cattle over 30 months of age intended for the human food chain, ante and post mortem tests at meat factories and the removal of all specified risk materials from the human food and animal feed chains. If any adjustments to these controls are deemed necessary in the light of operational experience, or in the light of scientific work, they will be made. It is not considered, however, that the work referred to at this stage warrants any changes to the comprehensive control system already operating in Ireland.
