EU fights animal diseases
The European Commission has approved a financial package to fight a range of animal diseases transmittable to humans, it announced on 15 October. Over half of the total 188 million euro animal disease budget will be spent on monitoring cattle for transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) and implementing eradication programmes, while the remaining funds will be used to test for other diseases such as scrapie, salmonella, brucellosis, rabies and bovine tuberculosis. 'We are dedicating increased resources in 2005 to fight animal diseases,' said David Byrne, EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection. 'Healthy animals are the key to safe food. [This] decision reflects our on-going commitment to supporting pro-active monitoring, preventative action, and disease eradication,' he added. Food safety has been a priority for EU Member States ever since the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) outbreaks in cattle in the 1990s. The Commission's new financial package was approved following the submission by national governments of their monitoring and eradication programmes for 2005. 'The programmes have been evaluated by the Commission and the Commission has adopted the maximum possible EU financial contribution [...] reflecting the high level of importance attached to disease eradication measures for the protection of both animal and public health,' said the European Commission. The Commission will also provide 32,775 million euro to scrapie eradication programmes, as well as 55,085 million euro for 82 programmes aimed at tackling ten major animal diseases transmittable to humans.