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It has been announced that all farm visits under the voluntary Ram Genotyping Scheme (RGS) will end in December 2008. No new applications will be accepted from 30 September 2008 and the Scheme will be wound up in March 2009.
Since 2001, the RGS has provided free scrapie genotyping of 1.8m sheep in 11,000 flocks contributing to the significant increases in the resistance of mainstream breeds and the reduction in scrapie. The Compulsory Scrapie Flocks Scheme is unaffected. Breeders will be able to continue genotyping through commercial test providers.
The National Sheep Association and the Rare Breeds Survival Trust will take over its semen archive in November 2008. The Scottish Agricultural College will administer a new industry-funded Scrapie Monitoring Scheme from January 2009.
This news forms part of a package of measures announced on how testing for TSEs will be managed in the future following consultation with the industry on TSE responsibility and cost-sharing proposals.
The number of cases of BSE and scrapie in Great Britain has continued to fall. In 2007 there were 53 confirmed cases of BSE compared to 37,000 in 1992, and 82 confirmed cases of scrapie, compared to 597 in 1999. Further reductions are expected in 2008. The requirement to destroy cattle slaughtered over 30 months old, under the Over Thirty Months (OTM) Scheme, was replaced with BSE testing in 2005 and the export ban was removed in 2006. Defra has therefore decided that industry will now take control of the cost of collecting and disposing of fallen adult cattle.
Controls in abattoirs, including the testing of cattle and the removal of specified risk material, such as brain and spinal cord, will remain in place, as will controls on feed to protect animal health.
The RGS was reviewed after EU Member States agreed that breeding for scrapie resistance should not as planned become compulsory. As part of that review the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) concluded that, having regard to the latest research and surveillance testing, the prevalence of BSE in the UK sheep population is most likely zero, or very low if present at all. It said that the RGS will have little impact on public health protection but the strategy of selective breeding for scrapie resistance remains a scientifically valid approach for eradicating classical scrapie.
End to free collection and disposal service for fallen adult cattle
From mid January 2009, the free collection and disposal service for adult cattle i.e. cattle aged over 24 months that have died or been killed on farm will end. To help industry in the transition period, £2m will be made available to the National Fallen Stock Company for cattle that will still need to be tested for BSE. Subject to final EU agreement, the age above which fallen cattle must be tested is expected to increase from 24 months to 48 months on 1 January 2009. This subsidy will last for a year, after which, the Company will transfer to industry ownership.
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