The UN’s food agency FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) has issued a statement to reassure the public after several cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) have recently been found in cattle in Canada, the USA and in a goat in France. Whilst research in the area progresses, BSE remains a rare disease in humans and keeps declining in the animal population.

"The three cases in Canada and the one case in the USA are isolated incidents," said Andrew Speedy, an FAO animal production expert. They were detected because of the testing procedures that are now in place. Western European countries experienced significant numbers of BSE cases in 2001-2002 but the disease is now declining in the region. "There is still some lack of understanding about BSE and how it can be detected and controlled," Speedy said.

FAO is working with Swiss experts to train people in other countries, including Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Near East, in methods of diagnosis, surveillance and prevention. Switzerland has a fool-proof system of cattle identification and registration, a scientific testing programme, preventative measures in the rendering and animal feed industry and complete support throughout the food chain.

The goat diagnosed with BSE in France was the first food animal other than cattle to contract the disease naturally but also the only example in millions. It was born before Europe imposed a total ban on feeding of MBM to livestock in January 2001, FAO said.

Essential control measures include the exclusion of potentially infective materials (Specified Risk Materials or SRMs) from the food and feed chain and improved practices in the rendering and feed industries. Cross contamination can occur in the feed mills and during transport and on the farm. A total ban on MBM is necessary to prevent transmission of infective material, according to FAO. Alternatively, pig and poultry lines must be kept entirely separate in feed mills. 

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