EU budget firms up for BSE
linked to animal diseases, signing off the largest slice for
eradication of mad cow disease.
The majority of the budget, €98 million will go towards tackling BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), a transmissible, neurodegenerative, fatal brain disease of cattle linked to the human disease variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) that has struck more than 100 people in the UK alone.
"Healthy animals are the key to safe food. Today's decision reflects our on-going commitment to supporting pro-active monitoring, preventative action, and disease eradication," said David Byrne, EU commissioner for health and consumer protection.
BSE, that ravaged the UK beef industry in the early 1990s, cost the EU-15 more than €90 billion, a situation that Brussels is keen to avert a second time. The new budget, rising by some €41 million on 2004, for TSEs will aim to boost consumer confidence in Europe's beef industry to bring more revenue into the sector.
The UK beef industry is only now starting to recover from the outbreak that saw 37,000 clinical cases of BSE and about 60,000 of the highest risk animals entering the food supply, compared with less than one a year today.
Money from the Brussels bank account will go towards testing of cattle. As part of the eradication programmes currently in motion all cattle for human consumption older than 30 months, all dead-on-farm cattle and emergency slaughtered cattle over 24 months and all suspect animals independent of their age have to be tested for BSE.
France and Germany with €24 million and €15 million respectively will receive the largest chunk of the overall TSE funding, compared to the UK's €5.57 million. By contrast the UK is set to get €4 million for BSE programmes, against France's €500 000 and Germany's €875 000.
Onto the pressing, and growing, problem of zoonoses - diseases like salmonella that are transmissible between animals and humans, particularly through food - the Commission has earmarked about €55m for 82 programmes in the European zone. The World Health Organisation estimates that the percentage of people suffering from foodborne diseases each year is up to 30 per cent.
