Since July 22, the European Commission assures that Europe is on the verge of eradicating bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), better known as mad cow disease. In 2009, 67 cases were detected in the European Union against 37,320 at the height of the epizootic in 1992. Faced with this finding, the Commission plans to relax the precautionary measures, in particular to put an end to slaughtering systematically threatening animals when a case of BSE is detected, and lifting the ban on animal meal for food animals, in force since 1994.
ANSES, the national health security agency, will soon be approached by the Ministry of Food to assess the dangers associated with a return of this meal composed of mammalian meat and bones, intended to feed pigs, poultry and fish.
For its part, the CNA, an advisory body to the Ministries of Food, Health and the Economy, announced the establishment in September of a working group responsible for examining the advisability and conditions of the possible reintroduction of these processed animal products. The CNA report is expected at the end of June 2011.