Defra statement - Farmers reminded of law on offspring culls
001/02
14 January 2002
Farmers are being reminded that it is illegal to sell for human consumption the offspring of cows that have been placed under restriction because their mothers have developed clinical BSE.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is writing to farmers with animals under restriction after discovering that a farmer had sold an animal whose mother had developed clinical BSE, even though he had been sent a restriction order. There is no reason to think that this offspring had BSE but this sale is against the law and the Department is now considering legal action.
DEFRA culls all offspring of cows that develop clinical BSE and were born after August 1996 when the mammalian meat and bone meal feed ban for all farmed animals became effective. This is an EU requirement. To date, there is no indication of maternal transmission in the small number of cases born since 1996.
The Food Standards Agency has said previously that the risk to human health of offspring animals entering the human food chain is minimal as they would be under 30 months old and the tissues most likely to harbour BSE would have been removed as was the case for this animal.
Under the BSE Offspring Slaughter Regulations 1998 when a cow is found to have clinical BSE, restrictions are placed on its offspring to prevent them from being sold for human consumption. When this happens a notice is given to farmers to tell them that they must not move the animal and the offspring's passport is taken from the farmer by regional Animal Health officials.
But this procedure was hampered by the Foot and Mouth outbreak when to avoid increased risk of transmitting disease, farm visits were minimised.
DEFRA has already written to its Animal Health Divisional Offices and asked for checks to be made to ensure that similar cases are avoided and to prioritise action on the backlog that has arisen.
Page published: 14 January 2002