Scientific steering committee advises on BSE
The European Union's scientific steering committee has advised on measures to prevent the unnecessary slaughter of healthy cattle following an outbreak of BSE. On September 21, the committee published an opinion advising countries outside the UK on how to respond to an incident of BSE within their national herd. To date most countries that have experienced relatively low numbers of BSE cases have ordered the slaughter of all cattle in the same herd. The committee points out that this policy causes the unnecessary culling of large numbers of healthy cattle which are unlikely to have been exposed to the BSE agent. Unlike most infectious diseases BSE is not passed from cow to cow but is spread in infected feed. The cattle likely to have been exposed to infection alongside the animal with BSE are therefore those that received the same feed, particularly calves born at around the same time. Culling cattle in the same 'birth cohort' would provide the same degree of protection against future cases of BSE as current practice but at about one-third of the cost, it says.