BSE and goats
Tuesday 8 February 2005
BSE has been found in one French goat that died in 2002.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) informed the Agency in 2005 that a Scottish goat that died in 1990 may have had BSE. The results of further tests by DEFRA’s Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) published in June 2008 indicate that this animal was probably infected with BSE.
The VLA is undertaking more tests to try to confirm this, but it will be some years before the results are available. BSE has not been found in the current UK goat population, nor in some 900,000 goats tested across Europe since 2002, apart from the French finding.
So are these isolated incidents from the past?
The European Commission greatly increased the testing of goats throughout Europe for a two-year period following the confirmation of BSE in a French goat, but no further cases could be found. During this period, all goats aged over 18 months slaughtered in the UK were required to be tested before they entered the food chain.
Why do we only know now about these cases?
Confirmatory testing for BSE in a goat takes a long time, up to two years or more, which is why it took until January 2005 to confirm the French result. The possibility that the Scottish goat had BSE first came to light in 2005 when, following news of the French result, the VLA carried out testing on historical samples from goats originally diagnosed with scrapie using a quicker but less definitive test.
Should I stop eating goat meat?
On the basis of the current evidence, the Agency is not advising people to stop eating goat meat. BSE has not been found in the current UK goat population and the UK has not imported any goat meat from France since 1997. The Agency consulted its independent scientific experts, SEAC (the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee), in 2005 about the possibility that a UK goat may have had BSE. SEAC concluded that there is no evidence for BSE in the current UK goat herd and, as goats are no longer exposed to contaminated feed, the likelihood of goats in the current flock being infected with BSE is low. This result does not affect SEAC's conclusion. The Agency will continue to keep people informed as information becomes available and, if necessary, update its advice.
What about products such as goats' cheese?
The Agency is not advising people to stop eating goat products such as cheese. EFSA's current advice is that, provided the milk is sourced from healthy animals, milk and milk products from goats are unlikely to present any risk of contamination, irrespective of country of origin.
Do we eat much goat meat in the UK?
Goat meat is not widely eaten in the UK, although it is a traditional ingredient in African-Caribbean dishes, and is also eaten by Muslims, so it is likely that these communities eat the most goat meat. About three quarters of the goat meat eaten in the UK is imported. In 2007 the majoriity of imported goat meat came from the Irish Republic, Spain and France.
How might these goats have got BSE?
It is likely that these goats were exposed to BSE in their feed, before the use of potentially infective material in animal feed was effectively banned.
Were these two goats alive before the animal feed was banned?
Yes. The UK ban on feeding potentially BSE infected feed to farmed animals became fully effective in 1996. A similar ban came into force across Europe in 2001. Few pre-1996 goats are likely to still be alive today.
What other measures are in place to reduce the risk?
No goat that shows signs of any brain disease such as BSE is permitted to enter the food chain. There are also controls in place to remove some of the parts of a goat that could contain BSE infectivity, such as the spinal cord. However the current controls would not remove all of the possible infectivity.