Eat meat from animals with tuberculosis. The idea does not make salivate. However, according to the revelations of the Chained Duck, this is what is happening in France. Each year, more than 8,000 cows affected are affected by the disease in French farms. This infectious pathology would not prevent it from ending up in the distribution circuit and on consumers’ plates. The satirical newspaper reports in its October 25 edition that more than 3,000 tonnes of contaminated French meat would thus be put on sale … without the health authorities flinching.
The whole problem lies in the fact that this situation benefits from a legal vagueness. What the law says ? European Union regulation 854/2004 clearly emphasizes that infected meat cannot be consumed and that it “must be declared unfit for human consumption”. The relative laxity of the legislation is based on the following nuance in the text, which indicates: “When a tuberculous lesion has been found in the lymph nodes of a single organ or part of the carcass, only the organ or the part of the carcass infected must be declared unfit for consumption. “
A risk of transmission to humans?
In other words, once the lesion was removed, the rest of the animal could be sold. Hence the current problem.
A wind of controversy could blow on French farms. Especially since the question of the risk to human health of consuming this meat arises. Bovine tuberculosis is a zoonosis (animal disease) transmissible to humans caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis), recalls ANSES. Since 2001, France has been considered “officially free from bovine tuberculosis “ by the European Union, despite the persistence of around one hundred outbreaks each year.
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