New measures to fight scrapie in France

The French government on Tuesday adopted measures to prevent the spread of disease among sheep and goats and lowered the age threshold for "mad cow" disease testing of cattle entering the food chain. The measures concerning sheep and goats aimed to reinforce current French legislation to fight scrapie, an ailment related to mad cow disease, which is also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). They followed advice issued mid-February by the French food safety agency AFSSA​, which recommended banning additional sheep and goat organs and tissues from the food chain. Since June 1996, France has demanded the removal of certain specified risk material-brain, spinal cord and eyes- from slaughtered sheep and goats older than 12 months. Spleen and tonsils of sheep and goats were added to the list in 1997. "Today's decision goes further by lowering the age threshold at which the central nervous system should be removed and destroyed,"​ the agriculture, health and consumer affairs ministries said in a joint statement. They said that from now on, the entire head, including tonsils and eyes, would have to be destroyed, whatever the animal's age, except for cheek muscles and the tongue. The brain will be removed from all slaughtered sheep and goats older than 6 months and the same age threshold will apply to spinal cords from January 1, 2002, they said. The ministries did not make any decision on sheep and goat intestines while they await a report by AFSSA on the issue, which is expected in the autumn. But they said intestines should already be removed from all animals that had come from a herd where a case of scrapie was found. In conformity with the AFSSA recommendation, the government also said that from September, all thoracic and abdominal viscera from infected herds would be removed in slaughterhouses and prevented from entering the food chain. These decisions apply to all products imported from countries that are not officially recognised as scrapie-free. The French government also decided to lower to 24 months from 30 months the age threshold for systematic mad cow testing of cattle entering the French food chain. This comes after a June decision by the European Union veterinary experts to give EU member states the option to test healthy cattle under 30 months on a voluntary basis. Isabelle Chmitelin, deputy general director of the French food administration, said in June that lowering the age threshold to 24 months would mean 200,000 additional tests per year but would pose no logistical problem. France has carried out over 900,000 mad cow tests on healthy cattle over 30 months old since the beginning of the year, when it became compulsory. At least 85 people in Britain and two in France have died from the human form of the disease, new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. In June, the total number of BSE cases reported in France since 1991 stood at 292, of which 54 were discovered this year.