Scientists warn of potential BSE risk in meat plants

Scientists in Britain have warned of a theoretical risk that BSE could spread in meat-processing plants which deal with both at-risk cattle and animals for human consumption. Some Irish plants handle both.

Food safety specialists here are to contact their UK counterparts after Britain's Food Standards Authority announced yesterday that it would investigate this cross-contamination risk.

Its decision followed the publication of a report yesterday by scientists from the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences. They warned that normal sterilisation procedures may not be enough to prevent cross-infection at abattoirs where at-risk cattle are culled.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland said it would make immediate contact with the agency in Britain to see how it was responding to the report and its contents, said Mr Pat O'Mahony, of the authority.

"They may just want to reexamine their practices, which we are doing continuously anyway," he said yesterday. "We would keep things constantly under review."

Eighteen plants have been approved here for the slaughter of animals over 30 months old under the Department of Agriculture's Purchase for Destruction scheme. It was introduced as a market-support measure earlier this year, and several hundred thousand animals have been destroyed, according to a spokesman for the Department.

These plants handle animals both for culling and for the table. EU restrictions forbid both activities on the same day and, between batches, the killing lines are cleaned and sterilised, Mr O'Mahony said.

"They have very specific cleaning protocols afterwards," he said. Cutting tools including saws and knives involved in severing specified risk material including the spinal cord were changed between batches.

The Transmissible Spongi form Encephalopathies report included concerns that cross-contamination could still occur despite strict hygiene practices. There was a theoretical risk that prions, the agent responsible for BSE, could remain after cleaning and then transfer to meat for human consumption.

"Urgent consideration needs to be given to the possibility of cross-infection in the few abattoirs in the UK that handle both the slaughter of animals for food and the culling of cattle aged over 30 months that may be incubating BSE," said the group's chairman, Prof Brian Heap, vice-president of the Royal Society.

"Since cattle over 30 months are culled because they might be infected with BSE, we need to establish conclusively that work surfaces and equipment in abattoirs are not contaminated after the usual cleaning and sterilisation procedures," he added.

The Purchase for Destruction scheme had been taking between 15,000 and 20,000 animals a week, but this had fallen to between 5,000 and 6,000, the Department of Agriculture spokesman said.