Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-02-Speech-3-178"
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"en.20010502.13.3-178"2
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"My apologies for the inability of the shadow rapporteur, Mr Trakatellis, to be with us this evening. At short notice, I have agreed to try and say a few words on his behalf in relation to this most important topic. First of all, I would like to commend all those involved to date from the Commission up through the Council and indeed, back to us, but particularly Mrs Roth-Behrendt, for the personal commitment she has given to this most important issue.
A year ago, I spoke in Parliament in relation to this particular matter and my views were clearly laid out. I think it was 16 May last year, the time of the first reading. Not a lot has happened since in one sense. In another sense, both politically and scientifically, a huge amount has happened in the whole area of TSE, more particularly if you like, in relation to BSE. A year ago, it was the UK, Ireland and one or two other isolated outbreaks of BSE that was concentrating the minds, particularly the epidemic that had been experienced by the UK for some time. Since then, as you know, we have had Portugal, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Italy and Austria. But we must look at the numbers involved relative to the cattle population in each country to make sense, rather than just to panic the consumer. It has been very hard to have a reasonable rational debate on the impact of an outbreak of BSE, be it 3, 4 or several hundred cases at a time. It must be taken relative to the cattle population in each country.
Only this week we hear of reports of outbreaks among the elk in the Colorado regions of the US and of new variant CJD outbreak among young men, young hunters – not the normal age group associated with CJD as we have over the years understood it to be. There has also been increased rigour in the reporting of BSE and increased surveillance generally with new testing regimes. This is not an indication that the disease is spreading, because we are get increased numbers. It means we are being more effective and more efficient in terms of looking for the disease in the various countries. That must be spelled out also so that we do not panic the consumer into thinking that the disease is continuing to spread. It is not. BSE is a disease of older cows, primarily older dairy cows. It has a much higher incidence among the dairy herds, than the suckler herds, probably because the dairy men could afford more concentrates traditionally over the years. In most countries the milk gave a higher economic return than, for example, breeding beef – certainly that was the experience in Ireland and the UK. But at the moment the high risk is with the dairy herd, the six and seven year-old cows and that is why, since I spoke last year, we have had the destruct scheme that was announced on 13 December 2000, if I recall correctly, that will be in place until the end of this year.
My one big criticism of the destruct scheme is that it did not particularly insist that Member States with a problem targeted the older cow, where the real risk cohort still remained. In fact, this scheme was used to underpin the market and the price of cattle, rather than primarily to take out the disease in the older cow. I do not mind underpinning the market. That could be part of it. But it should be secondary to removing the disease and that was not the case and I criticise that particular scheme in that respect.
We have also learned a lot in the last year in relation to new variant CJD and that patients with a distinct genetic makeup are prone to it, not the entire population. We need to say more about that so the public understands the relative impact that it may or may not have. It is genetic, its infectious, its degenerative, but there are very, very few cases, given, for example, the number of BSE cases in the UK in the cattle herd. We have been eating scrapie-infected sheep for over two hundred years, with no ill effect, and that is because the structure of the shape of the prion, the non-infectious protein, in the sheep, is not compatible to that in the human brain, unlike the rendered cattle or beef prion, that replaces the protein necessary in our brains. Again, we have not been telling the story as it is. Yes, I agree with an awful lot has been done and we need what is proposed before us here today, but I would rather we use the OIE or WTO standard, so that all countries could agree on the classification, so that what we do in Europe would not be considered a trade barrier by the rest of the world with whom we must trade our meat products and live animals. That is my one criticism still that, in this respect, we want to go it alone in Europe, rather than operate a worldwide basis in relation to this. Congratulations to all concerned."@en1
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