Scottish government and beef industry reassure consumers there is no threat to human health or wider impact on farmers

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A movement ban has been imposed on a beef farm in Aberdeenshire after a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, was found in its herd.

The Scottish government and beef industry moved to reassure consumers there was no threat to human health or any wider impact for Scottish farmers after the BSE was found during routine tests on a dead cow.

The case, thought to have been found in a herd near Huntly, is the first incidence of BSE detected in Scotland for a decade and the first in the UK since two cases came to light in 2015.

An investigation by the Animal and Plant Health Agency will include tracing possible sources of the infection. Other cattle in its group, and its offspring, will be traced and destroyed, the Scottish government said.

Q&A What is BSE? Show Hide BSE stands for bovine spongiform encephalopathy – a disease that infects cows, attacks their central nervous system and is generally fatal. Symptoms typically include aggression and a lack of coordination, leading it to be known as mad cow disease. Can it be passed to humans?

Scientists believe it can be passed on through the food chain, causing a fatal condition called new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD). When was the last case in Scotland?

The case the Scottish government has confirmed on an Aberdeenshire farm is the first for more than a decade.

When was the last UK outbreak?

A widespread BSE outbreak that began in the UK in the late 1980s reached its peak in 1992-93 with 100,000 confirmed cases. However, there were two more recent cases in 2015.

Is food affected?

In the latest case, no. A ban on the use of high-risk offal for human consumption was introduced in 1989, leading many to fear eating burgers. But the following year, the agriculture minister at the time, John Gummer, claimed beef was "completely safe" and appeared on TV trying to get his four-year-old daughter to eat a beefburger.

BSE can be transmitted to humans through contaminated meat consumption, causing a fatal infection to the brain called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). It remains unclear whether this new case is significant or how the BSE was transmitted.

Scotland was declared BSE-free in May last year, officially earning the status of “negligible risk”, but after this isolated case its beef exports will be placed on the lower “controlled risk” status used for exports from the rest of the UK.

Fergus Ewing, the Scottish agriculture minister, said: “Following confirmation of a case of classical BSE in Aberdeenshire I have activated the Scottish government’s response plan to protect our valuable farming industry, including establishing a precautionary movement ban being placed on the farm.

“While it is important to stress that this is standard procedure until we have a clear understanding of the disease’s origin, this is further proof that our surveillance system for detecting this type of disease is working.”

Millions of cattle were culled across the UK during a major BSE outbreak in the late 1980s to early 1990s, which led to a freeze in exports and in some cases long-lasting bans.

A Scottish government spokesman said the last time there were multiple linked cases of BSE in Scotland was in 2006.

Kate Rowell, the chair of Quality Meat Scotland, who is a farmer and vet, said the fact this isolated case had been found nearly a decade after it was last detected in Scotland showed that the routine surveillance systems in place were working.

“The reality is that sporadic cases, such as the one confirmed this week, do occur and have also been reported in other countries,” she said.

Rowell added this case was unlikely to seriously damage meat exports since Scottish farmers and exporters had successfully rebuilt the industry’s reputation overseas in the years before Scotland was given BSE-free status last year.

Ian McWatt, the director of operations for Food Standards Scotland, the consumer protection agency, said there was no cause for alarm.

“There are strict controls in place to protect consumers from the risk of BSE, including controls on animal feed, and removal of the parts of cattle most likely to carry BSE infectivity,” he said.