A MEETING of European Union veterinary experts in Brussels yesterday may hold the key to an extension of the selective slaughter of British beef believed to be infected with BSE, if they accept new evidence that the disease can be transmitted from cow to calf.
The veterinarians were also expected to consider the eradication of sheep's spinal cord and spleen from the food chain, predicting far-reaching changes in the British rendering process, which currently bans sheep's offal from the food chain.
On the agenda, the veterinarians considered evidence supporting both the banning of the spinal cord and spleen of sheep from the food chain and evidence that BSE can be transferred from cow to calf.
Also under review is a report that, despite the selective slaughtering of 147,000 British cattle from high-risk herds, there is little hope of lifting the ban on British beef in the short-term.
The evidence comes from a recent admission by a group of British scientists that BSE can be maternally, or vertically, transmitted from cows to their calves. The report has alarmed officials in Brussels and prompted the French government to call for a long-term ban on British beef.
But a spokesman for the Oxford-based research team, which has produced statistics for an alternative culling programme, said yesterday that it was impossible to predict the effect of the research on the Commission's attitude to British beef. "We are at the start of another round of expert analysis," he said.
While the EU's veterinarians have yet to make an announcement on an extension of the slaughter of British beef, the fear among some English and Welsh farmers is that the policy is already on the committee's agenda.
Mr Richard Haddock, a British beef farmer, said he wanted the British government to "act now" on the uncertainty of the spread of BSE because "many farmers are upset at facing huge bills for feeding cattle which will eventually be slaughtered".
With uncertainty in Brussels, there is mounting confusion surrounding the future of the British slaughter programme among British farmers.
The current target for culling 147,000 cattle has yet to be met, and many British beef farmers are calling on the National Farmers Union to negotiate with the government to clarify the policy and the farmers are demanding that either the cull goes ahead or that it is simply reduced or abandoned altogether.
The political dimension of any EU meeting "is not necessarily a. good or a bad thing", said a spokesman for the Meat and Livestock Commission yesterday. The organisation, which represents the interests of those involved in food production, said it was prepared to "wait and see" what recommendations the EU veterinarians presented to the Standing Veterinary Committee.
"There are a whole range of options that could come from this meeting, and while we would be concerned with what is recommended we will get upset if we need to get upset. In the meantime we have no knowledge of what has been decided."
No decisions were taken at yesterday's talks, which mark the start of another round of intense analysis at EU level of the risks from BSE and the most effective ways of countering the disease.
"Nothing will be concluded today. The scientists are simply beginning a study of all the latest available information. Any recommendations from them will have to go to meetings of the Standing Veterinary Committee of national government vets later" said an EU Commission spokesman.
Yesterday the scientists studied reports in the magazine Nature, suggesting that the proposed selective cull of British cattle, due to start next month, may be larger than necessary to ensure the eradication of the disease.