Europe Raises U.S., Canada BSE Risk

August 24, 2004 - The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recently issued seven up-to-date scientific reports on the Geographical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Risk (GBR) assessments for Australia, Canada, Mexico, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, and the United States.

While Australia’s GBR Category I (i.e., presence of BSE in domestic cattle is highly unlikely) is maintained, that of Norway was raised to Category II (presence of BSE unlikely but not excluded), Sweden remains at GBR Category II, and those of Canada and the United States have been raised to Category III (presence of BSE likely but not confirmed, or confirmed at a lower level) following a new assessment taking into account the most recent evidence. EFSA’s Scientific Expert Working Group on geographic BSE risk assessment also evaluated the status of Mexico and South Africa, which were classified as Category III.

In 2003, EFSA was requested by the European Commission (EC) to re-assess the GBR for 13 countries: Australia, Botswana, Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Namibia, Norway, Mexico, Panama, Swaziland, Sweden, and the United States. Although the European Commission did not specifically seek advice from EFSA relating to the appearance of BSE in South Africa, the working group decided to carry out a risk assessment for this country under a self-tasking mandate in order to allow for a meaningful evaluation of the three other countries in the Southern African region for which a GBR assessment was requested (i.e., Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland). The GBR assessments for the remaining six countries will be finalized by the end of 2004.

In conducting the GBR assessments, EFSA’s GBR working group followed the methodology developed by the former Scientific Steering Committee of DG Health and Consumer Safety (DG SANCO) of the European Commission which is described in its final opinion on GBR assessment. The risk assessments published this month are based on up-to-date data provided by the countries concerned as well as other sources of data (i.e., Eurostat and country export data) covering the period of 1980 to 2003.

A detailed analysis for each country is presented in the scientific reports, which can be found at www.efsa.eu.int/science/efsa_scientific_reports/gbr_assessments/catindex_en.html.


Render