[ad_1]
An atypical case of BSE – commonly known as "mad cow disease" – has been discovered in Poland, although this isolated case poses no risk to human health, Poland's chief veterinarian said on Monday (February 4th) .
"A case of atypical form of BSE in Poland has been confirmed," said Krzysztof Niemczuk, quoted by the Polish press agency PAP.
"According to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), BSE in its atypical form, as it was discovered in Poland, does not affect the status of Poland in as a country with negligible risk of BSE, "he added.
The cow found carrying BSE in the village of Mirsk in southwestern Poland, a region bordering the Czech Republic and Germany, was shot dead, Niemczuk said.
The atypical strain of the disease was discovered Jan. 24 during a routine screening, said the OIE in a separate statement.
He added that atypical BSE "occurs spontaneously in all cattle populations at a very low frequency" and, as such "does not affect the official badessment the risk of BSE in Poland ".
The discovery of BSE in British cows prompted the European Union to order a worldwide ban on British beef and its derivatives in 1996, after learning that it could be transmitted to the United Kingdom. man in the form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which can be life-threatening.
The embargo in Europe was lifted in 1999.
In another case, EU experts arrived in Poland on Monday to investigate a beef alert suspected of seeing a Polish slaughterhouse evading controls to slaughter lame cows and export the meat to 13 other members of the European Union.
European Commission spokeswoman Anca Paduraru confirmed that the team had arrived in Poland, telling reporters that "the report will be ready in about a month".
The beef scandal erupted at the end of last month after TVN24 commercial television broadcast images of apparently sick or lame cows being slaughtered in a small slaughterhouse in northeastern Poland. .
According to the TV report, the merchants bought lame or sick cattle at prices much lower than those of healthy animals.
A journalist working under cover at the slaughterhouse used a hidden camera to film the secret late-night slaughter while the veterinary authorities were unlikely to surrender.
Poland immediately closed the Kalinowo slaughterhouse, a village located about 100 kilometers north-east of Warsaw.
Niemczuk said that an badessment of the meat had revealed that it posed no health risk.
He added that Poland had learned that the meat had been exported to two other countries – Greece and Slovenia – in addition to those already known.
A total of 2.7 tonnes of suspect beef were exported to them, to which Germany, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Portugal and Romania are added. , Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Sweden, Latvia and Lithuania.
Poland is a major producer and exporter of meat in Europe. The country produces around 600 000 tonnes of beef a year and exports most of it, mainly to the European Union, according to the meat producers' badociations.
The scare is reminiscent of a 2013 scandal in which horse meat was considered beef and used in ready-to-eat meals sold all over Europe.
Source link
