PA News | November 4, 1999 | By Eileen Murphy, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Exports of British meat and bonemeal (MBM) for use in cattle feed continued to non-European Union countries for nine years after links between BSE and this foodstuff were uncovered, a public inquiry said today.
The inquiry into the outbreak of mad cow disease and the actions of the government ministers and scientists to contain its spread today published a draft factual account (DFA) of the evidence so far received on the subject of MBM exports.
In the DFA Keith Meldrum, the Government's chief veterinary officer at the height of the crisis in the late 80s and 90s, told colleagues in 1989 that the Government "do not consider it morally indefensible to export MBM to other countries since it may be used for feeding to pigs and poultry as in this country".
At this time the Government had been aware of a likely link between feeding MBM recovered from slaughtered sheep to cattle and the arrival of BSE in Britain for almost a year after initial studies in 1987 revealed a possible link.
The British Government had also implemented its own domestic ban on the practice in August 1988.
But exports to Third World countries and others outside the 15 European Union member states continued.
In 1989 Mr Meldrum remained clear that it was not for the British Government to take the issue of exports into its own hands.
He said: "It is our view that the importing country must determine its own import conditions and to that end we have ensured that all countries of the world have been informed of our problems."
Mr Meldrum and his colleagues at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food told the Inquiry team they had utilised the Office Internationale des Epizooties (OIE) - the animal health equivalent of the World Health Organisation - to spread the word about BSE.
But in its final report to 150 member countries in 1998 the OIE made no reference to any link between MBM and the incidence of BSE.
Government scientists had also published scientific papers through veterinary and scientific journals and Mr Meldrum had addressed the OIE himself.
Sir Donald Thompson, parliamentary under secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture from 1986 to 1989, added in his evidence to the Inquiry: "I am convinced in my own mind that what we were doing on BSE was internationally known and understood."
However, it was not until June 1994 that the feeding of protein derived from other mammals to cattle was banned throughout the EU while a worldwide ban on the export of MBM did not come into force until 27 March, 1996.
The BSE Inquiry is due to report back to the Government early next year.
Copyright 1999 PA News.
