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News & Reports
TSEs
Sheep industry asks government to change rules on carcase splitting The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and National Sheep Association (NSA) have formally asked George Eustice, minister for farming at Defra, to change the rules on splitting the carcases of sheep. The move follows months of meetings and the organisations say that the request is supported by many bodies representing farmers, auctioneers and abattoirs. Under the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies regulations, the current rules state that all sheep over the age of 12 months must have their spinal cord removed, meaning that carcases have to be split. At present, lambs are aged through ‘mouthing’; that is, they are checked for the eruption of their first set of permanent incisors to determine if they are older than 12 months. 60 | Veterinary Record | July 18, 2015
The system the two organisations propose would be calendar-based, with a simple cutoff date of June 30 each year; all lambs sent to slaughter before this date would be deemed to be under 12 months of age and therefore their carcase would not need to be split. ‘Despite there being no evidence of BSE crossing species from cattle to sheep in field conditions, nor evidence that scrapie poses any risk to human health, TSE regulations were brought in as a “precautionary measure” and any change, however minor is met with resistance from Europe,’ said Phil Stocker, chief executive of NSA. ‘While our two organisations will continue to fight for wider-scale reform at a European level, we feel more immediate gains can be made with the proposed
change to a calendar-system. Following an unprecedented level of industry consultation and detailed discussions with Defra and Food Standards Agency officials, NFU and NSA have confirmed this change could be made at a UK level, not EU, so we have formally requested George Eustice, Defra parliamentary undersecretary of state, to go ahead with this alternative implementation of the TSE regulations.’ The NSA and NFU argue that a change towards a calendar-based system would not necessarily change the number of carcases being split, but would remove uncertainty in the supply chain and save money as markets and abattoirs would no longer have to check teeth. doi: 10.1136/vr.h3886
Downloaded from http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/ on November 21, 2015 - Published by group.bmj.com
Sheep industry asks government to change rules on carcase splitting Veterinary Record 2015 177: 60
doi: 10.1136/vr.h3886 Updated information and services can be found at: http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/content/177/3/60.2
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To request permissions go to: http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions To order reprints go to: http://journals.bmj.com/cgi/reprintform To subscribe to BMJ go to: http://group.bmj.com/subscribe/
News & Reports
TSEs
Sheep industry asks government to change rules on carcase splitting The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and National Sheep Association (NSA) have formally asked George Eustice, minister for farming at Defra, to change the rules on splitting the carcases of sheep. The move follows months of meetings and the organisations say that the request is supported by many bodies representing farmers, auctioneers and abattoirs. Under the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies regulations, the current rules state that all sheep over the age of 12 months must have their spinal cord removed, meaning that carcases have to be split. At present, lambs are aged through ‘mouthing’; that is, they are checked for the eruption of their first set of permanent incisors to determine if they are older than 12 months. 60 | Veterinary Record | July 18, 2015
The system the two organisations propose would be calendar-based, with a simple cutoff date of June 30 each year; all lambs sent to slaughter before this date would be deemed to be under 12 months of age and therefore their carcase would not need to be split. ‘Despite there being no evidence of BSE crossing species from cattle to sheep in field conditions, nor evidence that scrapie poses any risk to human health, TSE regulations were brought in as a “precautionary measure” and any change, however minor is met with resistance from Europe,’ said Phil Stocker, chief executive of NSA. ‘While our two organisations will continue to fight for wider-scale reform at a European level, we feel more immediate gains can be made with the proposed
change to a calendar-system. Following an unprecedented level of industry consultation and detailed discussions with Defra and Food Standards Agency officials, NFU and NSA have confirmed this change could be made at a UK level, not EU, so we have formally requested George Eustice, Defra parliamentary undersecretary of state, to go ahead with this alternative implementation of the TSE regulations.’ The NSA and NFU argue that a change towards a calendar-based system would not necessarily change the number of carcases being split, but would remove uncertainty in the supply chain and save money as markets and abattoirs would no longer have to check teeth. doi: 10.1136/vr.h3886
Downloaded from http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/ on November 21, 2015 - Published by group.bmj.com
Sheep industry asks government to change rules on carcase splitting Veterinary Record 2015 177: 60
doi: 10.1136/vr.h3886 Updated information and services can be found at: http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/content/177/3/60.2
These include:
Email alerting service
Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article. Sign up in the box at the top right corner of the online article.
Notes
To request permissions go to: http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions To order reprints go to: http://journals.bmj.com/cgi/reprintform To subscribe to BMJ go to: http://group.bmj.com/subscribe/
