We should test for BSE, say lobbyists

Australia was guilty of resting dangerously on its laurels in relation to testing for mad cow disease, according to a new education foundation.

The Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE) Foundation said Australia needed to be more proactive in testing cattle for the disease, whose various forms affect humans as well as animals.

The call comes just days after Japan confirmed its fourth case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), since it began testing for the disease in November.

When the first case was found last year, demand for Australian beef slipped more than 30 per cent, leading local producers to fear the latest case could further damage trade relations between the countries.

In an effort to allay Japan's fears, Federal Agriculture Minister Warren Truss said Australian beef was free of disease, adding that "Japanese consumers can buy Australian food with the highest confidence."

But TSE Foundation chairman Dr Peter Higgins said there was still too much to learn about the disease before we could categorically declare ourselves safe.

"There is still so much that's not known and so much science we don't yet understand," said Higgins, a veterinary specialist.

"We can't play with people's lives by resting on our laurels, because as soon as you start doing that, that's when things go wrong."

Higgins said the Australian government already took a number of preventive measures, such as banning the use of meat and bone in cattle feed, but said it did not go far enough in testing carcasses for BSE.

He said only 0.009 per cent of slaughtered animals were currently tested for presence of the disease, compared with total testing in Japan and some European countries.

"It is playing with the dice too much," Higgins said.

"All it would take is a positive case of BSE in Australian beef to be detected in Japan and the international ramifications would be huge because we would not be seen as being proactive."

Higgins suggested mandatory testing of all carcasses for three years to prove to the world Australia's level of safety, before scaling tests back to a proportion of animals.

He calculated such a widespread test should only cost consumers an extra 20 cents per kilogram - a price he predicted most people would be willing to bear.

Higgins also said it was important to keep in mind that about 4000 unregulated products contained bovine derivatives, ranging from lipsticks to collagen and gelatin.

"It may not have any affect at all, but the thing is that nobody knows," he said.

BSE is an incurable degenerative disease that affects the central nervous system of cattle and is one of several within the class of diseases known as TSEs, which are known to fatally damage the brain and spinal cord of humans and animals.

Damage occurs with the build-up of abnormal proteins on the brain, called prions.

More information on what the Government is doing to prevent BSE can be found at: here.

The TSE Foundation's website, www.tsefoundation.org, will be launched at the beginning of June.