Memorandum submitted by the Association
of Meat Inspectors GB Ltd (BTB 10)
1. At the meeting held 25 January 2006 the
Chairman made comment there was a possibility that if there existed
a problem with the current on farm test reliability then the resulting
"false negatives" could mean the incidence of TB in
the national herd is higher than currently believed.
2. Members of the Association of Meat Inspectors
GB report that the numbers of cattle coming forward for slaughter
both detailed in documentation as contacts or from restricted
areas has increased greatly over the past few years. Also that
in the past two to three years some animals coming into the abattoirs
both as "Clean Cattle" and "Over Thirty Months"
are also displaying lesions of TB, and that this in the past would
have been an extremely rare occurrence.
3. The question I asked on 25 January 2006
of the ISG was "are any animals found displaying lesions
in this manner, included in the survey data, or is reliance placed
only on those animals which are known as contacts or from restricted
areas and so come to the abattoir with documentation?".
4. For information the Association carried
out a survey of condemnations in abattoirs during 1994-95 in 50
abattoirs. In which we looked at 192,079 cattle slaughtered of
these:
Five carcases were totally condemned for TB (0.0026%).
Four were partially condemned (0.0021%).
33 offal sets condemned (0.0172%).
38 sets of green offals (0.0198%).
5. The Association has asked both the MHS
and the FSA repeatedly to follow up this survey with another,
but permission has never been granted.
February 2006
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