BSE: Public health issues - Notification, disposal & compensation
(287 KB)Notification of BSE suspects
BSE was made a notifiable disease in Great Britain in June 1988 and in Northern Ireland in November 1989. This meant that anyone who is in charge of an animal which is suspected of being affected by BSE is legally required to notify the responsible agriculture department, either the Divisional Veterinary Manager of Defra or the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland.
Compensation
Compensation payable for BSE suspects, offspring and cohorts slaughtered in Great Britain is determined using a table valuation system, in accordance with the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (No.2) Regulations 2006, the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Compensation (Wales) Regulations 2006 or the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (Scotland) Regulations 2006.
Animals are categorised on the date the notice of intention to slaughter is served. The compensation payable is determined from the valuation table for the month in which the animal is slaughtered. Further details are available.
Diagnosis of BSE
Once a notification is received a Departmental Veterinary Officer will visit the farm or other premises to examine the animal. If the animal is suspected of having BSE its movements will be restricted. An order will be served on the owner of the animal prohibiting the movement of the animal and the sale of its milk. If necessary, further visits will be made until a diagnosis can be made based on clinical signs.
When the veterinary officer believes the animal is suffering from BSE it is then slaughtered. The carcase is removed by a Defra Contractor to a Defra Contracted incineration site and disposed of by incineration. Before the carcase is incinerated the head is removed and taken to a laboratory when brain tissue is removed for examination. The rest of the head is then incinerated too.
Diagnostic tests to confirm the clinical diagnosis are undertaken by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA). The VLA is an agency of Defra whose chief executive reports direct to the Secretary of State, and which undertakes diagnostic services in relation to BSE on behalf of the Chief Veterinary Officer.
In Northern Ireland carcases of BSE suspect animals are moved directly to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Developments' Veterinary Science Service Laboratory where the brain tissue is removed for examination and diagnostic testing. The remainder of the carcase is destroyed by incineration at the laboratory premises.
Recording of BSE cases
When an animal is declared a suspect its details are entered onto the BSE database and if the disease is later confirmed this information is added to the database.
The database records the eartag of the animal, the premises on which it was inspected, and the premises on which the disease is confirmed. In the case of animals born after the feed ban in 1988, the premises where the animal was born is also recorded. The Department's database currently holds details of all cases of BSE confirmed in Great Britain. Details of the Cattle Tracing System operating in Great Britain are available in the livestock movements, identification and tracing section of the Defra site. In Northern Ireland separate databases contain the complete movement history of all animals in Northern Ireland and details of all BSE suspect and confirmed cases.
Disposal of BSE suspect carcases
It is the Department's policy to dispose of BSE suspects by incineration wherever feasible. No BSE suspect carcases have been landfilled since 1991.
The safety of BSE waste
In May 1996 the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee considered the issue of BSE and the environment, including the past disposal of BSE suspects in landfill sites. They concluded that it was unlikely that leachate from landfill sites would present a significant risk and there was certainly no justification for taking heroic measures to excavate sites, even those which have previously been used for material such as BSE confirmed cattle. A more detailed summary of SEAC's recommendations in their statement of 07 June 1996, which is available from the SEAC website. The Environment Agency has since carried out a quantitative risk assessment of a number of sites judged to be typical of those thought to be most vulnerable which shows the risks to public health to be very low indeed, negligible compared to other risks in daily life. The results have been placed on the public register, together with related work on the risks from BSE via environmental pathways.
Page last modified:
4 January, 2008