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Britain may back away from testing.

Big Muddy rancher

Well-known member
BRITAIN may back EU plan to relax rules on ‘mad cow’ cattle testing
11.oct.08
Valerie Elliot, Times Online
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article4922886.ece
Tough controls on beef that protect consumers from the human form of “mad cow” disease may be relaxed in Britain and across the Continent.
At present the brains of all cattle aged over 30 months are tested for BSE before the beef is allowed into the food chain. The European Commission has now put forward a plan to raise the testing age to 48 months from next January.
In the UK this would mean that beef from 106,000 cattle a year – about a quarter of all British beef produced annually – would be allowed on sale for the dinner plate without their brains being tested.
The Food Standards Agency is recommending the change to its board, which is to discuss the issue next Wednesday. Advice will then be sent to health ministers. Approval has already been given to the Commission by the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa).
Professor Patrick Wall, chairman of Efsa and an adviser to the FSA on meat controls, told The Times that the tests on 30 month-old cattle were redundant. “In the past two years of testing for BSE in animals over 30 months there have been no positive cases in cattle under 42 months throughout Europe. My view is that the controls are not necessary and are not proportionate to the risk,” he said.
Papers published by the FSA disclose that scientific experts at Efsa and at the UK’s Veterinary Laboratories Agency have calculated that if the testing regime moved to cattle aged 60 months, let alone 48 months, less than one infected animal would be missed a year from all cattle slaughtered in 15 EU member states. The UK food watchdog is also satisfied that human health will be protected by removal of material from carcasses, which are most likely to carry infection.
 

Kathy

Well-known member
Big Muddy, I hope that everyone can see that while the article is based on BSE testing, the article is also "re-affirming" the need to "age - verify" your cattle for the purpose of testing.

Here in Alberta where the government told us, last June 08, to either cooperate with their new AB Livestock and Meat Strategy, or "find an exit strategy"[direct quote] they are pushing "animal age verification"and "premise identification". The government's declared reasons are for market access; however:

The ALMS is going to be implemented under the Alberta Animal Health Act, and this act is solely about controlling the movement of animals and creating "surveillance zones", "control zones", and "quarantine zones" of animals in the meat industry.

The idea of the new BSE urine test, will be implemented - no doubt - but the urine test only confirms exposure to an AGENT, and not disease state.

Chronic Wasting Disease in Alberta has demonstrated that, of the apprx. 55 animals diagnosed positive with CWD - as many as 12 were not positive in the brain tissue for malformed prions. They were diagnosed based on a positive signal from their lymph nodes. Thus, these animals did not have CWD - their brains were not affected. However, they were exposed to the agent causing the disease and it built up in their lymphatic system. I am trying to find out how many of these 12 animals were emaciated at the time of detection; but Dr. Pybus (the AB biologist in charge) has not given me detailed information on all these cases. ) It does appear though, that as many as 1 - 12 deer may have shown emaciation but were not positive in their brain tissues.

If you get my drift, they were not positive for CWD - but another condition associated with exposure to the AGENT, which I believe is heavy metals and/or radiological metals - like uranium -. The military being a prime source of insoluble uranium nanoparticles; but, of course we can't forget the flaring of gas from wells - as another source, or the presence of these toxic agents in drilling mud.

Europe wants to alter its BSE testing of their animals, will they go to the Canadian urine test if and when it is approved?

Will the authorities start equivalency testing of the animals, meaning testing of lymph nodes in both cows and deer? What will this result in?

All this is a co-ordinated effort by the WHO, OIE, and our governments to categorically avoid admitting the true cause of these diseases, and sypmtoms of toxicity. Timing of exposure can directly influence whether the brain is afflicted.

Just as the Canadian government adopted the rules of the OIE and WHO in regards to BSE (without passing any legislation to do so - they just adopted their guidelines)..... the whole of North America will be reigned in by the new legislation being passed in Alberta.

Section 9 of the AB Animal Health Act grants the Minister of Agriculture the power to licence anybody for anything he feels necessary (in regards to animal health).... and he can pass the legislation via regulation. Sorry, this is not legal... I hope to launch a Judicial Review of the Act. Because if we do not fight this BS, we will be regulated to death, with no recourse.
 
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