The proposal also foresees, as an alternative to the removal of specified risk material (SRM), the application of a post-mortem test to identify TSE infectivity, once such a test has been validated and approved by the Commission. This proposal does not affect medicinal or cosmetic products which are covered by separate legislation or SRM for use in industrial products. The second proposal lays down EU rules for epidemic surveillance for TSE. These proposals will now be submitted to the Standing Veterinary Committee for an opinion, following which the Commission will decide on the proposal. In the absence of an opinion, the proposal is submitted to the Council for a decision which can adopt it by qualified majority or reject it by a simple majority of Member States. Otherwise it is adopted by the Commission.
The list of SRM11 SRM list in Commission decision of July 1997
a) the skull, including the brain and eyes, tonsils and spinal cord of bovine animals aged over 12 months, and ovine and caprine animals which are aged over 12 months or have a permanent incisor tooth erupted through the gum;
b) the spleens of ovine and caprine animals. is enlarged to take account of the latest scientific advice and includes:
1) the skull, including the brain and dura mater, the pituitary gland, the eyes, the tonsils, the intestines from the duodenum to therectum, the vertebral column, including the dorsal root ganglia, spinal cord and dura mater, of :
- bovine animals aged over 12 months,
- ovine and caprine animals which are aged over 12 months or have a permanent incisor tooth erupted through the gum.
2) the spleens of ovine and caprine animals.
The draft decision allows Member States and Third countries to ask for a total or partial derogation from the SRM ban in the light of their geographical risk. Member States requesting a derogation must submit the data necessary to allow assessment of their geographical BSE risk before 30 June 1998 at the latest. For these Member States, the entry into force of the enlarged EU SRM list will be suspended until 31 December 1998 in order to allow for the scientific assessment and the subsequent decision making. However Member States with a native born case of BSE must apply a SRM ban in accordance with the IOE SRM list established in 1997 i.e. brain, spinal cord, eyes and distal ileum of bovines over 12 months of age.
Third countries will also be invited to submit the necessary data in the same time scale. Imports from third countries, which have followed this invitation (except Switzerland which has native BSE cases), will be exempted from the requirement of SRM removal until 31 December 1998. For imports from Switzerland the 1997 IOE list of SRM will apply until this date.
An exemption for Member States applying a compulsory single carcase test for animals above a certain age is introduced in the proposal. As a precondition such tests must be approved by the Commission after validation will have been carried out. A derogation for relevant products derived from tested carcasses to be imported from third countries is also foreseen.
A derogation for the use of the raw SRM in certain products covered by sectoral legislation, e.g. medicinal and cosmetic products, and industrial products is also foreseen.
This draft decision does not apply to products, containing or derived from SRM, which are produced before 1 July 1998.
Surveillance for TSE
This proposal lays down rules for epidemio-surveillance for TSE. It obliges Member States to ensure :
These rules shall oblige each Member State to have the structures in place to give early warning of emergence of BSE and scrapie or, if these diseases occur in their domestic animal population, to give an exact picture of the incidence of BSE or scrapie.