BSE fading away
The disease which caused Europe’s worst peacetime crisis in 100 years for the livestock sector is unlikely to recur, according to the report. But its authors have estimated the long-term BSE bill at 92 billion, far more than is generally appreciated. Much of the cost will be carried by farmers, mostly in the form of a long term beef price decline of about 3% a year.The latest farmers affected are in Canada, where a single case in May 2003 is costing $11 million a day in lost exports.
“Though the epidemic is drawing to a close, the technical and economic impact will continue. Consumer confidence in the integrity of the food chain has been severely damaged. Government agencies and controls have been discredited”, said the authors of the report, who were also critical of farming methods and the meat industry.
They said there are three main unanswered BSE questions: what was its real origin, what is the future of the human disease CJD, and what to do with 16m tonnes of beef waste, formerly converted to meat and bone meal.
The verdict that the disease is fading away could further ease the health worries of beef importers like Egypt, who may be on the verge of re-opening their beef trade with Ireland, following their lifting of an import ban put in place due to BSE worries, and an increase in export refunds which enables Irish exporters to compete better in Egypt, our largest pre-BSE Third Country market.
“BSE has been a calamity for governments, for the meat trade, for farmers and most of all for 150 people who have died from the BSE linked variant Creutzfelt-Jakob Disease”, said Professor Cunningham, who headed the European Association for Animal Production investigation.
