BSE

Feed banned in Britain dumped on Third World

The row over exports

Special report: the BSE crisis
Sat 28 Oct 2000 19.10 EDT

Britain offloaded tens of thousands of tons of potentially BSE-infected cattle feed on the Third World after deciding it was too dangerous to give to herds in the UK.

The meal and bonemeal was exported after March 1988, when the Government realised that feed made from slaughtered animals was the probable cause of the BSE epidemic in UK cattle. In July that year, the Government banned its use in Britain, and a week later officially informed the European Union, then the EEC, of its fears. But it wasn't until March 1996, eight years later, that a worldwide ban on the export of MBM, as it was called, came into force.

No one knows how many cattle fed on the meal in those countries may now be incubating BSE.

According to figures released by HM Customs and Excise, by 1989 the UK was exporting about 25,000 tonnes of MBM to EU countries and about 7,000 tonnes to nations outside Europe mostly in the Middle East and Africa. By 1991, sales of MBM to Europe dropped to zero. At the same time exports of MBM to the Third World had soared to 30,000 tonnes.

Countries that continued to buy British MBM included Czechoslovakia, Nigeria, Thailand, South Africa, Kenya, Turkey, Liberia, Lebanon, Puerto Rico and Sri Lanka.

Memos and minutes uncovered in the BSE inquiry reveal that the question of whether Britain should ban exports to non-EU countries led to ministerial arguments between John MacGregor and John Gummer inside the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food as well as a row between MAFF and the Department of Health.

On 15 June 1989 chief veterinary officer Keith Meldrum wrote to the president of the British Cattle Veterinary Association saying: 'We do not consider it morally indefensible to export meat and bone to other countries since it may be used for feeding to pigs and poultry.'

In January 1990, chief medical officer Sir Donald Acheson wrote to Meldrum warning him of the risks. He said: 'We should take steps to prevent these UK products being fed to ruminants in other countries... Unless such action is taken, the difficult problems we have faced with BSE may well occur in other countries. Surely it is short-sighted for us to risk being seen in future as having been responsible for the introduction of BSE to the food chain in other countries.'

Previously in 1998 Gummer, who was a MAFF Minister at the time, is reported in departmental minutes as having said the UK had a 'moral obligation to ensure that importing countries were aware we did not permit the feeding of these products to ruminants.'

But MacGregor disagreed. MAFF civil servant Alistair Cruickshank told the enquiry: 'At the meeting of 14 April 1988 MacGregor gave no indication that he agreed with Gummer's suggestion.'

In February 1990, Dr Hilary Pickles, a senior official in the Department of Health, wrote to the Chief Medical Officer claiming the Government's behaviour was not 'responsible'.

She wrote: 'I fail to understand why this cannot be tackled from the British end.'

Government scientists claim they published scientific papers about the risks of BSE which should have warned countries of the risk of feeding MBM to cattle and raised the issue at the Office Internationale des Epizooties - the international organisation concerned with animal health.

Lord Phillips' report does not criticise individuals and concludes that very few BSE cases have been reported outside Europe in cattle which have been fed on British animal feed.

However, a spokesman for the OIE said: 'If MBM was exported to countries in the Middle East and Africa and was used to feed cattle then there is a risk cows will become ill.

'We only hear of BSE cases from countries that report them so we cannot say for certain that a country in Africa has not had cases because we may not have been told about them.'

Useful links
BSE Inquiry
Food Standards Agency BSE Review
MAFF BSE site
Department of Health BSE/CJD site
Human BSE Foundation - voluntary support group
BSE news and research

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