Spinal cord has been found in beef imported from Germany into the UK. Bovine spinal cord is classified as specified risk material (SRM) and is therefore among those parts of the animal most likely to contain BSE infectivity. Under European law, SRM must be removed immediately after slaughter, stained, and disposed of safely.

The discovery was made on Monday (25th June) in two out of 230 forequarters of beef being unpacked at ADM, Eastbourne. The receiving company was not responsible for the problem. The beef came from Gausepohl Fleisch GmbH, Bakum, Germany. This company sent a consignment of beef to ADM in February this year, and one quarter in that consignment was found to contain spinal cord.

The two quarters found on Monday have been detained, pending disposal under the supervision of the Meat Hygiene Service. The German Veterinary Service has been notified. Suzi Leather, Deputy Chair of the Food Standards Agency, has written to Commissioner David Byrne asking the European Commission to “request the authorities in Germany to carry out a thorough investigation of the reasons for these repeated breaches which, prima facie, would seem to justify suspension of the plant’s licence until any systematic deficiencies in control have been rectified”.

The Meat Hygiene Service and all local authorities – who have responsibility for inspecting beef imports – have already been given the name of the German abattoir concerned, to add to the list of European abattoirs from which beef containing spinal cord has been imported into the UK.

While SRM is among those parts of the animal most likely to contain BSE infectivity, the results so far of BSE tests conducted on healthy cattle across the EU have been described as encouraging and tending to indicate that there is no massive, hidden BSE epidemic in Europe. In Germany specifically, there were only 18 positive tests out of 868,541 animals tested between January and the end of May this year.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

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1. The following table gives cumulative figures for the numbers of healthy cattle tested for BSE from January to the end of May 2001, across all EU Member States. It does not include BSE suspect animals (those reported as BSE suspects) nor “at risk” animals (defined as those found dead-on-farm; emergency slaughtered animals, and those sent for normal slaughter but found to be sick at ante-mortem inspection). Adult cattle are defined as those aged 24 months or over.

RESULTS OF BSE TESTING IN THE EU, January to end May 2001
(Healthy animals only)

Source: http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/bse/testing/bse_results_en.html

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