EU vets lift British beef ban

Europe’s veterinary experts today unanimously approved the ending of the worldwide ban on British beef exports imposed 10 years ago because of mad cow disease (BSE).

The European Commission is now expected to endorse the lifting of the embargo on UK exports of live cattle, beef and beef products, in about six weeks.

The EU’s Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health decreed that the UK has fulfilled all the necessary conditions for the ban to be lifted.

Key in the decision was the fact that the annual incidence of BSE in Britain is now well below 200 cases per million adult cattle – the threshold at which a “high risk” category is reduced to “moderate risk”.

At its peak in 1992, the BSE outbreak recorded more than 37,000 cases of the disease.