Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-07-01-Speech-2-232"
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"en.20030701.7.2-232"2
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".
The Scientific Steering Committee has classified Spain as a GBR III country, having confirmed cases at a lower level. The upper limit of this level is an incidence of 100 cases per million adult cattle over the past 12 months.
The BSE incidence in Spain has been increasing since the beginning of 2002. The incidence is, however, still well below this upper limit of around 45 cases per million adult cattle over the past 12 months, and it is not increasing rapidly. Therefore, the classification of Spain by the Scientific Steering Committee still remains valid.
In the first quarter of this year, Spain reported about 50% more BSE cases than during the corresponding period last year. At the same time the number of cases decreased or was stable in all other Member States, except Portugal.
Compared with other Member States, Spain has a rather high rate of young animals born in 1997 and 1998.
The feeding of ruminant proteins to ruminants is considered to be the main source of BSE transmission to cattle. Therefore, the Commission imposed a Community-wide prohibition of the use of mammalian proteins in ruminant feed in 1994. It is, however, evident that this ban was not fully enforced at that time, since most of the BSE cases reported today were born after 1994. Meat-and-bone meal continued to be allowed in feed for non-ruminants, and thereby ruminant feed was contaminated in feed mills and during storage and transport.
Another source of transmission was cross-feeding of feed intended for non-ruminants to cattle on mixed farms. Shortcomings in the implementation of the feed ban were observed throughout the Community. To put an end to the transmission of BSE the feed ban was extended to the use of all animal proteins in feed for all farmed animals at the beginning of 2001.
Other measures to reduce the transmission of BSE are improved rendering standards – which came into effect in early 1997 – and a ban on the use of so-called BSE risk materials in food and feed, which became effective in October 2000.
The current Community legislation should, if rigorously implemented, be sufficient to prevent new animals from becoming infected. BSE cases will, nevertheless, continue to appear in Spain, as in other Member States, for a number of years because of an incubation time of four to six years or even longer. That is why it is important to maintain current safeguards, in particular the removal of specified risk material."@en1
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