"Mad cow" disease is under control in Europe and measures to prevent it could be relaxed, the European Commission said today as it urged the EU to focus attention on emerging disease threats such as bird flu.
The number of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) cases has dropped to 850 positive tests for the brain-wasting disease in 2004 in the enlarged 25-nation bloc from 2,129 in 2002 in the former 15-nation bloc, the commission said.
The EU executive will look at raising the 12-month age limit for removing the vertebral column from cattle which has taken T-bone steak off dinner tables across Europe since 2000.
The EU's food safety agency (EFSA) reviewed the 12-month age limit earlier this year and said it could be raised to 21 months, as only four BSE cases under the age of 35 months had been reported since 2001.
The commission also wants to end the mandatory requirement where if one cow tests positive for BSE, the whole herd must be slaughtered to lessen the economic losses.
With the relaxing of BSE measures, Europe would be able to concentrate on fighting avian flu, a disease that has ravaged poultry in Asia and sparked fears that it could mutate into a human form, the commission said.
Europe's outbreaks of BSE caused panic in the 1980s and 1990s with 184,000 cases registered in Britain by 2004.
More than 100 people have died from the human form of BSE, variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (vCJD), after eating tainted meat. BSE was caused by feeding cattle with infected parts of other cattle.
The EU banned animal parts from animal feed and also tightened food safety laws to limit what parts of cattle can enter the food chain.