Bulgaria’s virus expert Dr Roumen Valchovski, has questioned the effectiveness of Dutch tests used in the country to detect BSE, which replaced tests recognised by the European Commission in June 2004. "Beef and sheep meat has been tested but certificates were not issued due to the fact that the test used has not been officially recognised by the European Union. Tons of meat went to the market in violation of European norms," he said.
Raiko Pechev, director of Bulgaria's laboratory for detecting bovine spongiform encephalopathy said the Dutch test was more precise and rapid than tests already approved by the EU and that it was in its last stage of EU pre-certification trials. Yet both the director of the government veterinary service, Kiril Kirov, and director of the state's food veterinary control service, Roumen Petkov, disapproved of the practice, calling it a time-bomb.
This comes after several Bulgarian MPs raised their concerns regarding BSE control on imported veal and beef in October and urged a prosecutor to investigate the country’s top veterinary official for importing flawed tests from the Netherlands. Until this point the lack of certificates was attributed to ‘trust’ in the quality of testing. The police are currently investigating the violation.
