No cause for alarm, says chief vet

Chief Veterinary Officer Lino Vella yesterday said there was no cause for alarm after the European Commission categorised Malta as a country "likely to have the presence of the agent causing bovine spongiform encephalopathy", better known as mad cow disease.

Dr Vella said slaughtered animals over 30 months of age were tested daily, in line with EU directives, to protect local consumers against BSE.

Dr Vella was contacted after Reuters yesterday carried an article under the alarming headline: "Israel, Malta, Slovenia pose BSE risk - EU".

The report delved into how EU scientists this week decided to classify the three countries in level III classification, two notches above the "highly unlikely" level I category, but not reaching level IV under which BSE would be confirmed to a high degree.

It reported the Commission as saying that all three were considered "to represent a level III risk meaning that the presence of one or more cattle clinically or pre-clinically infected with the BSE agent is likely but not confirmed, or confirmed at a lower level".

Scientists have linked beef from cattle infected with BSE to the spread of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in humans, a brain-wasting disease.

Dr Vella explained that after the last outbreak of mad cow disease the EU had embarked on a risk analysis of all member states, candidate countries and countries which export to Europe.

Countries such as the UK had been placed in the more serious level V, while others such as France, Italy and Portugal were categorised in level IV.

This was the first time that Malta, like other countries, was being placed in a category, and this did not come about because some case of BSE had suddenly surfaced, said Dr Vella.

"This risk analysis was carried out to decide what should be done with special risk material such as the brain, spinal cord, tonsils and intestines of the animal.

"Basically all those placed in level III have to destroy this material by discarding the head without the tongue, the intestines and spinal cord - something Malta has been doing since February last year when the scare erupted," Dr Vella said.

Dr Vella said that one of the reasons that Malta was placed in level III was that a few years back it had imported some cattle from the Netherlands. Since the Netherlands had had BSE, Malta would be therefore deemed as "likely" to pose a risk.

"The EU is taking absolutely no risks and it wants to ensure that if Malta exports beef to Europe then the consumers can put their minds at rest that the meat is safe," he said.

"At the moment we do not export to Europe so we were not on their priority list to carry out the risk analysis. This is why Malta was only categorised now. If Malta wants to export to Europe it can," he said.

Dr Vella said that this categorisation did not in any way affect the local market and local consumers were covered against any possible BSE.