London - Exports of British meat and bonemeal (MBM) for use in cattle feed continued to non-European Union countries for nine years after links between BSE and this foodstuff were uncovered, a public inquiry said yesterday.
The inquiry into the outbreak of mad cow disease and the actions of British government ministers and scientists to contain its spread published a draft factual account (DFA) of the evidence so far received on the subject of MBM exports.
In the DFA, Mr Keith Meldrum, the government's chief veterinary officer at the height of the crisis in the late 1980s and 1990s, told colleagues in 1989 that the government "do not consider it morally indefensible to export MBM to other countries since it may be used for feeding to pigs and poultry as in this country".