Nora Owen
Ceist:89 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will make a statement on his plans to combat nvCJD; and his plans to ensure food safety in this regard. [5516/01]
Written Answers. - Food Safety.
Since 1996 we have been aware of a link between BSE in cows and new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, commonly know as vCJD, in humans. In relation to the source of vCJD infection, the most likely explanation is the ingestion by humans of BSE-contaminated food. Humans may have been exposed to the BSE agent through different routes including consumption of contaminated food, contaminated pharmaceutical products, medical instruments, transplants, blood donations and cosmetics.
The consumption of beef is not a risk factor for vCJD, rather it is the consumption of contaminated beef products. Current information indicates that BSE infectivity resides in brain, spinal cord and other specified risk material, SRM. The consumption of this material is high risk and exposure to BSE may only have occurred in those who ate such material.
Some meat remains on carcass skeletons following deboning by conventional techniques. In the past, additional meat was removed from the skeleton mechanically. The practice involved putting the skeletons into machines, which using high pressure removed residual meat and tissues. This mechanically recovered meat, MRM, would have contained spinal cord and other SRM and was used for economy burgers, pies and other low-grade meat products. This may have been the most infective material entering the human food chain in the UK. The practice, rarely used in Ireland, was banned in May 1996. BSE was first identified in the United Kingdom in 1986. From the outset of the epidemic in the UK, Ireland acknowledged that it might have a BSE problem in the national herd and has been introducing a series of risk reduction measures since the first case of BSE was identified here in 1989.
Ireland's BSE controls are among the strictest in the world and include a legal obligation to notify the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development of any animal affected with BSE or suspected of being affected, the culling and destruction of all herds and birth cohorts of BSE animals, the removal and destruction of specified risk materials, SRMs, the introduction of comprehensive and effective licensing and control measures to prevent feed mills, which manufacture rations for ruminants, from using meat and bone meal in the manufacture of feed for other species. This measure, taken here in October, 1996, effectively prevented the type of cross contamination which a number of other member states have freely admitted was still occurring in their feed mills up to last year.
In September 2000, Ireland began using one of the then recently validated rapid diagnostic tests to test all casualty animals at factories and, in October, began testing a random sample of fallen animals. The EU requirement was that member states should commence this targeted active surveillance from 1 January 2001.
In response to consumer concerns about food safety including the emergence of BSE, the Government decided to establish an independent, science-based consumer-oriented food safety agency, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, which is accountable to the Minister for Health and Children. The FSAI was established in January 1999 and is developing a seamless inspection service from farm gate to the point of sale to consumers. Ireland's strict BSE controls are enforced by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, acting as agents of the FSAI via a service contract. The FSAI also audits the control measures in place.
The Authority has also set up a sub-committee of its scientific committee to specifically address BSE issues. Deputies will also be aware of the CJD Advisory Group which advises me on all matters related to CJD, including food safety.