BSE - The story so far

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) was first identified in November 1986 on Plurenden Manor Farm in Kent. It cannot be diagnosed in live animals other than by observing abnormal behaviour. The combination of a long incubation period and a lack of diagnostic tests makes the disease difficult to detect and, therefore, hard to control.

In response to concern that BSE-infected meat might be entering the human food chain, the Government established a committee of experts under the chairmanship of Sir Richard Southwood in April 1988. The scientists concluded that BSE had probably been transmitted to cattle following a change in farming practices in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the rules covering the preparation of animal feed containing animal remnants were changed.

Following the completion of the Southwood report, the Government introduced regulations in July under the BSE Order 1988, banning the feeding of protein derived from ruminants to cattle and other ruminant animals. This prohibition was not extended to non-ruminant animals such as pigs and chickens until March 1996. In addition, the slaughter and destruction of cattle suspected of having BSE was made compulsory from July 1988.

In March 1997, an additional cull of about 100,000 cattle at increased risk of developing BSE began. Farmers were offered compensation for these cattle. 'Specified offal' was banned for human consumption from November 1989.

There have been 168,478 cases of BSE recorded to date. The number of cases has declined in the last few years; 14,299 BSE cases were reported in 1995, compared to 8,010 cases in 1996 and 1,716 in the first half of 1997. The number of deaths from Creutzfeld Jakob Disease, the "human form" of BSE, in the UK since 1995 totalled 478 by August 1997.

The "human form"

On October 7 1994, Sir Kenneth Calman, the then Chief Medical Officer, had commented on the 3rd Annual Report of the CJD Surveillance Group, saying that there was no link between Creutzfeld Jacob's Disease and BSE, and that beef and veal was safe.

But on March 20 1996, the then Health Secretary, Stephen Dorrell, and the Agriculture Minister, Douglas Hogg, told the Commons that the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) had established a probable link between BSE and Creutzfeld Jakob's Disease, a fatal condition which affects humans.

The announcement prompted growing public and political hysteria, which resulted in the EU Agriculture Commissioner, Franz Fischler, issuing a ban on all exports of British beef on 25 March 1996. On 16 April 1996, Douglas Hogg announced that all animals aged over 30 months at the time of slaughter would be destroyed rather than be allowed to enter the human food chain.

Political in-fighting

Labour dubbed the money spent by the Conservative government compensating farmers the "beef tax" and the opposition parties accused Mr Hogg of incompetence. Labour tabled a vote of censure (a confidence vote) on Mr Hogg's performance on February 17 1997. The Government won the motion easily as Labour failed to get all of the other opposition parties to back it ahead of the vote.

The Government lobbied hard to have the EU ban lifted. It resorted briefly to a policy of non-co-operation on EU business This involved UK ministers refusing to agree EU measures, thus bringing much of the work of the Union to a grinding halt.

The pressure paid off and the policy of non-co-operation was ended following an agreement at the Florence summit in June 1996. Under the agreement additional measures were agreed to by the British Government, including an extension of the planned cattle cull, in exchange for a commitment that there would be a phased lifting of the ban as these measures were implemented. The British Government initially expressed the hope that the ban would begin to be lifted in November 1996 but British beef remains banned for export.

New government, old problem

Since the change of Government in May 1997, BSE has remained high on the agenda. On May 29, the new Agriculture Minister, Jack Cunningham, said that Britain might ban imports of beef from Germany and other EU countries which did not observe Britain's strict abattoir hygiene controls. He gave EU ministers until July 22 - the next council meeting of EU farm ministers - to agree to tougher controls throughout the community.

On June 26 1997, the European Union began a legal action against 10 countries - Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Italy and Portugal - for breaching EU rules on BSE. This supported UK Government warnings that the public was eating foreign beef which did not meet the same strict health controls as British meat. Germany and Belgium have led opposition to a European ban, claiming that countries with little or no BSE should not be forced to take the same expensive measures as Britain.

On June 12 1997, British proposals for ending a world-wide ban on British beef were dismissed as inadequate by EU veterinary experts. The proposal, put forward by the last Conservative government, was for a computer system of herd identification and traceability - a system in place in Northern Ireland and being extended elsewhere in the UK.

EU experts pinpointed five key concerns about the proposed arrangements for tagging animals and monitoring them from birth to death. They called for:

more evidence that the identification and traceability system can be effectively authenticated.

confirmation that tracing will include live animals, including in-bone carcass meat and de-boned meat.

a well-controlled disinfecting system for the slaughter and de-boning process.

measures to be taken at all times to prevent cross-contamination and the mixing of meat.

better clarification of how controls will be carried out under veterinary supervision. Such controls must be 'realistic'.

On July 2 1997 the final oral hearing of the European Court of Justice case on the export ban was heard. The European Court's advocate-general will deliver an interim opinion later this year, followed by the final judgement of the court.

Setbacks for the beef industry

Prospects of a lift in the ban seemed good when on September 17 1997, the EU scientific veterinary committee broadly accepted a scheme to allow beef exports from herds which had been BSE-free for 8 years. However, there was a further setback when the European Commission reported on September 24 that illegal British beef was being exported to Germany.

Oher problems have also surfaced. Concern about the length of the incubation period of CJD was renewed when it emerged on August 21 that a young women who had been a vegetarian for 12 years had contracted CJD.

New scientific research released on September 29 identified a link between BSE and a new variant of CJD which had already killed 21 people. Relatives of CJD victims signed an open letter which was published in the New Statesman on September 12 1997 in which they called for a public judicial inquiry into BSE.

And on December 3, the Government announced that it was to ban the sales of all beef sold on the bone, such as t-bone steaks, because of fears that swellings around the spinal column could pass on infection.