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OIE Relaxed International Sanitary Standards for BSE and Avian Flu
OIE (Office International des Epizooties/World Organization for Animal Health), which sets out international standards for animal sanitation, adopted at its General Session of the International Committee in Paris on May 27 relaxed safety standards for BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) and a highly pathogenic strain of avain infuluenza (fowl plague) etc.
Modifications on safety standards for BSE added controversial "deboned beef" on the list that can be traded as safe products providing that cattle either affected or doubious of infection are removed.
Conditions on deboned beef now include, among others, that (i) SRM (specified risk materials) are removed such as the brains, where BSE pathogens accumulate, and (ii) the beef is from cattle aged 30 months or younger. Standards governing the health status etc. of cattle and the number of samples to be tested for BSE will be drafted for adoption by the international committee general session that will be held next year.
On other aspects, it was decided (i) to simplify the category of countries according to BSE risk status from 5 to 3, and (ii) to limit SRM to be removed from the entire intestine to distal portion of the ileum, which Japan has long insisted on.
Modifications endorsed on safety standards for a highly pathogenic avain infuluenza (fowl plague) now treats countries clean if there was no outbreak for a certain period of time, where vaccination is used. Another point at issue this time was introduction of a new concept with respect to both BSE and fowl plague, by which each processing facility will be recognized clean of the diseases if they are under speficic sanitary control practices by the enterprise concerned. Hitherto, cleanliness had been recognized on a country or zone basis. Giving recognition of cleanliness for each facility means relaxation of the restriction in such a way that export can continue from "clean facility" even in countries where the outbreak of the disease is frequent.
Japan and other importing countries objected to such a modification. However, the new concept was incorporated in the standards. Yet, conditions for recognizing cleanliness were left to be determined bilaterally between exporting and importing countries.
Main Points of Modified OIE International Sanitary Standards
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BSE |
Deboned beef added on the list that can be traded as safe products providing affected cattle beef is removed and other conditions.
Export permissible from processing facility sanitarily controlled by the concerned enterprise if the country as such is in infected status. |
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Fowl plague |
Export permissible from processing facility sanitarily controlled by the concerned enterprise if the country as such is in infected status. |
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