Meat from older cattle exposed to BSE could have been sold for human consumption recently by traders who faked the animals’ identities, Nigel Gibbens, the Chief Veterinary Officer, has told The Times.
Officials imposed new restrictions on moving older cattle today to reduce the risk of new cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), which is caused by eating meat infected with BSE.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) acted after “several lines of inquiry” indicated that traders who supplied abattoirs had been trying to buy cattle born before August 1996.
More than 53,000 of these animals are still alive but they are banned from the food chain because they could have been fed with the infected remains of other cattle. Restrictions on feed were imposed at the height of the BSE crisis but were not fully introduced until August 1996.
Last month, a cattle dealer from Cumbria was jailed for ten months for altering the identity of a cow born before August 1996 in order to sell it to an abattoir for human consumption.
Advertisement
Stephen Helliwell removed the ear tag from a younger cow that was eligible for consumption and put it on to the older cow. A vet at the abattoir became suspicious and an investigation uncovered the fraud.
Mr Gibbens said that Defra was investigating other attempts to buy pre-1996 cattle, which have no legal commercial value because of the ban on consumption.
“We are looking to see how many people are involved. If you were particularly clever it is conceivable you could have evaded all our checks. Therefore we have to accept the possibility,” he said.
Mr Gibbens was unable to say when Defra became aware of the illegal trade. He said that the department had “pulled together lines of inquiry” last month and had decided there was enough evidence to warrant new restrictions.
Under the restrictions, no cattle born or reared before August 1996 will be allowed to move from their holdings without an individual licence. No licences will be granted to move these cattle to markets or through dealers.
Advertisement
Defra is writing to the 18,000 registered owners of these animals to inform them of the new rules.
Mr Gibbens said that the risk to human health was small because of other safeguards already in place. Cattle more than four years old are tested for BSE after being slaughtered and before their meat is sent to retailers. In addition, the brain and spinal cord, the parts most at risk from BSE contamination, are removed from all cattle slaughtered in Britain.
Mr Gibbens said the restrictions were being introduced partly to reassure other countries that British beef was still safe. The European Union ban on exports of British beef was lifted only in 2006 on condition that controls were strictly enforced.
“We can’t afford to lose the confidence of our trading partners, with whom we are still rebuilding our markets for British beef,” he added.
A total of 170 people in Britain are known to have died from vCJD between 1995 and the end of last year. The number of deaths fell from a peak of 28 in 2000 to 1 in 2008, but rose to 3 in each of the past two years.
Advertisement
Jim Paice, the Agriculture Minister, said: “I regret that due to what appears to be illegal activity by a few individuals [these restrictions have] been necessary. The industry has worked hard over the years to ensure British beef regained the good reputation it deserves, both at home and abroad.
“We want to maintain this reputation, so it’s sensible to introduce this extra safeguard. It shouldn’t have much impact on most cattle keepers, but it will give us additional confidence that these animals don’t enter the food chain.”