The new assessment by EFSA, an independent European body, raises the GBR for the United States and Canada to Category III, BSE “likely but not confirmed or confirmed at a lower level,” from both country’s previous Category II assessment, BSE “unlikely but not excluded.” While Australia’s GBR Category I level was maintained (presence of BSE in domestic cattle is highly unlikely) and Sweden’s remained at Category II, that of Norway was raised to Category II from I, and Mexico and South Africa, which had not been previously assessed, were classified as Category III.
In its analysis of the United States, EFSA reports “the BSE agent was probably imported into USA and could have reached domestic cattle in the middle of the eighties. These cattle imported in the mid-eighties could have been rendered in the late eighties and therefore led to an internal challenge in the early nineties. It is possible that imported meat and bone meal (MBM) into the USA reached domestic cattle and leads to an internal challenge in the early nineties.
“A processing risk developed in the late 80s/early 90s when cattle imports from BSE risk countries were slaughtered or died and were processed (partly) into feed, together with some imports of MBM. This risk continued to exist, and grew significantly in the mid 90s when domestic cattle, infected by imported MBM, reached processing. Given the low stability of the system, the risk increased over the years with continued imports of cattle and MBM from BSE risk countries.”
This is in contradiction to the Harvard study that explains the risk of BSE occurring in the United States is extremely low. The study showed that early protection systems put into place by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Department of Health and Human Services have been largely responsible for keeping BSE out of the United States and would prevent it from spreading if it ever did enter the country. Such was evident when a cow imported from Canada tested positive for BSE in December 2003. The meat from the animal was recalled and the meat and bone meal was disposed of in a landfill. Since that day, USDA’s on-going BSE surveillance program has been escalated to test hundreds of thousands of high-risk cattle – those animals showing clinical signs involving the central nervous system and dead and non-ambulatory cattle – to ensure the disease is not present in the U.S. cattle population. To date, no additional cases have been found.
EFSA’s analysis for the United States concluded that “as long as there are no significant changes in rendering or feed, the stability remains extremely high/very unstable. Thus, the probability of cattle to be (pre-clinically or clinically) infected with the BSE-agent persistently increases.” The analysis and conclusion for Canada is similar. A detailed analysis for each country is available on the Internet at www.efsa.eu.int/science/efsa_scientific_report/gbr_assessments/catindex_en.html.
Exporters Will Need Inspecting
Renderers who export or provide ingredients to companies who export product to the European Union (EU) will need to be inspected by USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) prior to September 1, 2005, in order to comply with the European Commission Regulation 1774/2002, the animal by-products regulation (ABPR), October 31, 2005 deadline that ends the EU derogation allowing rendering facilities to handle Category 1 and 2 material with a separation protocol.
While the former regulations allowed the handling of these “banned” materials in approved facilities as long as the material was not commingled with material to be exported to the EU, one change to the ABPR specifies that facilities processing animal proteins or fats for export to the EU must be dedicated to Category 3 materials, by-products derived from healthy animals slaughtered for human consumption. Approvals granted to facilities that handle Category 1 or 2 materials will no longer be valid after October 31, 2005, including those rendering facilities that have been approved to sell product to pet food companies exporting to the EU. The following facility types will no longer be al-lowed to handle materials from non-approved suppliers: processed animal protein (e.g., rendered meals); blood products that could be used as feed (e.g., spray-dried blood); rendered fats; hydrolyzed protein; dicalcium phosphate; tricalcium phosphate; and inedible egg products.
Newsline - October 2004 Render