BSE: Disease Control - The Feed Ban
The aim of our BSE-related feed control policy in the UK is clear – to ensure the continued successful decline and eventual eradication of BSE.
Practical experience gained over the years has shown that effective controls on livestock feed are the key to achieving this. And we are getting there. The rate of BSE cases in cattle being reported now is significantly lower than in 1988, when the disease was first made notifiable, and the number of new cases continues to decline yet further.
The crucial factor behind this success has been the very high level of compliance with BSE-related feed controls throughout the feed manufacture, supply, and livestock industries.
In addition, industry representative organisations’ own quality assurance schemes have considerably enhanced the official level of controls. Bearing in mind, however, that the actual dose of infective material required to infect a ruminant animal with BSE is very small (currently estimated to be as low as a single exposure through feed of 0.001 of a gram), there can be no room for complacency. There is a need for constant vigilance for everyone involved at all points of the feed chain, from those producing ingredients, to manufacturers and suppliers, right down to end-users, and the on-farm feeding practices used.
Feed controls
In the UK, the original feed ban was introduced in 1988 to prevent ruminant protein being fed to ruminants. In addition, it has been illegal to feed ruminants with all forms of mammalian protein (with specific exceptions) since November 1994 and to feed any farmed livestock, including fish and horses, with mammalian meat and bone meal (mammalian MBM) since 04 April 1996.
EU-wide Feed Controls
Harmonised EU control measures were introduced in 2001 to combat the spread of BSE. The measures included a ban on the feeding of processed animal proteins to animals which are kept, fattened or bred for the production of food. These control measures combined with domestic controls have proved successful and have significantly reduced the number of BSE cases across EU member states.
The Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health on 5 August 2005 introduced new elements to the controls, whilst still maintaining the ban on the feeding of processed animal proteins to farmed animals. The new elements are contained in the EU Regulation (1292/2005) which amended Annex IV of the Regulation (999/2001) from 1 September 2005.
The amendments are currently implemented by the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (No.2) Regulations 2006, which came into force on 3 May 2006.
The measures set out in EU Regulation (999/2001) are currently being discussed in the context of the EU TSE Roadmap and possible changes to the controls are being considered.
Feed controls - At a glance
| Feed product | Ruminants | Non-ruminant farmed animals |
|---|---|---|
| Permitted animal proteins - Milk, milk-based products and colostrum, Eggs & egg products, Gelatine from non-ruminants, Hydrolysed proteins derived from non-ruminants or from ruminant hides and skins | Permitted – subject to required sourcing and processing standards under Animal By-Product controls | Permitted – subject to required sourcing and processing standards under Animal By-Product controls |
| Prohibited processed animal protein (includes mammalian meat and bonemeal, meat meal, bone meal, hoof meal, horn meal, greaves, poultry meal, poultry offal meal, feather meal); Gelatine from ruminants | Banned (In addition to the restricted proteins listed below, and any animal protein not on the permitted list above) | Banned (Unprocessed animal by- products are also banned from feeding to farmed animals under Animal By-Product controls) |
| Restricted proteins (i.e. restricted to non-ruminant feed use) Fishmeal; Blood products; Blood meal (only to be fed to farmed fish); Di-calcium phosphate and tri-calcium phosphate (of animal origin only – not mineral) | Banned | Permitted – subject to authorisation to make feed with these products (Advice Note 2) or registration to use it in complete feed on farms where ruminants are present (see Advice Note 5 of the Guidance Notes) |