Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to prepare for another potential outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the UK.

The measures to be followed in the event of suspicion of BSE are set out in UK legislation, and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (AHPA) are well prepared to carry out the necessary actions. In the rare event that BSE is suspected, whole farm movement restrictions are applied by APHA who then trace cohorts (animals that shared feed with the affected animal during its first year of life) and any of its offspring born in the last two years.

In the event of the suspect case testing positive for BSE, its cohorts and offspring are then humanely culled, samples are taken from the brain stem for testing and the carcases are then destroyed, with the owners of the culled animals receiving compensation. While it not believed that BSE can be transmitted by mother to offspring during pregnancy ('vertical transmission') these animals are culled, along with cohorts, on a precautionary basis.

The APHA also carry out a rolling national feed audit which inspects and takes samples at various stages of the animal feed chain. This includes checks for prohibited processed animal proteins in samples of feeding stuffs intended for farmed animals. If feed is non-compliant, APHA inspectors look at the cause of contamination and make a decision based on the risk. Depending on the severity, feed may have to be removed from the market, and cattle exposed to it may be restricted or killed.

We remain vigilant to the threat posed by BSE and have a comprehensive surveillance programme in place to monitor the level of BSE over time and check on the continued effectiveness of our BSE controls. More detail on this is set out in Defra’s latest TSEs annual report here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/monitoring-programme-for-tses-annual-report-2021-and-2022.