Disease Information
15 December 2000
Vol. 13 - No. 49
BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY IN GERMANY
Additional information
See also: 1 December 2000
Translation of an e-mail received on 7 December 2000 from Prof. Dr Werner Zwingmann, Chief Veterinary Officer, Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry, Bonn:
Report date: 6 December 2000 (information additional to Disease Information, 13 [47], 216, dated 1 December 2000).
Background:
Between 1994 and 1997, a total of six cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) were diagnosed in Germany. All of these animals were imported from the United Kingdom (1 Scottish Highland cow, 2 Galloway cows, 1 Welsh Black cow and 1 Hereford cow) or from Switzerland (1 Simmental cow).
It has never been common practice in Germany to feed ruminants with animal meal. Nonetheless, feeding ruminants with animal meal produced in rendering plants has been prohibited in Germany since 18 March 1994. Carcasses have always been rendered in Germany at 133ºC and 3 bar for 20 minutes with a particle size of 50 mm.
Affected animal:
In a voluntary beef cattle testing programme carried out by a private laboratory in Hamburg, a cow tested positive to a rapid BSE test. The animal is a Red-and-White Holstein cow born on 2 August 1996. It had two offspring, a female born in 1999 and a male born in 2000.
The cow was slaughtered on 22 November 2000 along with three other cows from the herd in a slaughterhouse in Itzehoe in Schleswig-Holstein. The ante-mortem inspection showed no clinical signs suggesting BSE.
The diagnosis was confirmed by additional tests at the National Reference Laboratory for BSE of the Federal Research Centre for Virus Diseases of Animals in Tübingen on 26 November 2000.
Herd:
The infected cow and her mother were born and reared in a dairy herd in the Rendsburg-Eckernförde district in Schleswig-Holstein.
The herd consisted of a total of 169 bovines (67 cows, 2 breeding bulls, 61 heifers or young cattle and 39 calves) including both Red-and-White Holstein and Black-and-White Holstein cattle, bred exclusively within the herd or purchased from local herds in the region.
The herd was fed with farm-grown crops and complementary feedstuffs (concentrates) from regional feedmills or feed suppliers. This is undergoing further investigation.
No semen, ova or embryos were collected from the herd.
Previous epidemiological maternal cohort studies (2 August 1995 - 2 August 1997) showed that only one animal from these cohorts remains in a herd in the same Rendsburg-Eckernförde district. The herd in question is under restriction and official surveillance. The epidemiological study tracing the whereabouts of all cattle born after the infected animal is still in progress.
Control measures:
- The herd was placed under animal health restrictions as soon as BSE was suspected. After the diagnosis was confirmed, the whole herd (169 cattle) was slaughtered and safely destroyed by the National Reference Laboratory. Following slaughter, tissue samples were collected from all carcasses and tested for BSE. All samples tested negative.
- The meat and corresponding offal of cattle slaughtered on the same day in the Itzehoe slaughterhouse were seized and safely destroyed.
- The law prohibiting the use and intra-Community import and export of certain animal feedstuffs came into effect on 2 December 2000. As of this date, feeding animals with protein-containing products and fats from the tissue of warm-blooded land animals and fish as well as compound feedstuffs that contain them is prohibited nationwide. The intra-Community import and export of these feeds is also banned.
- As of 6 December 2000, all slaughtered cattle, as well as water buffalo and bison over 30 months of age, must undergo a rapid BSE test during meat inspections.
- In addition, all cattle dying after the age of 24 months and cattle showing clinical signs for which the presence of BSE cannot be ruled out must undergo a rapid BSE test. This also applies to cows over 24 months of age slaughtered for special reasons as well as male cattle over 30 months of age.
Altogether, 18,994 brains of cattle with CNS(1) symptoms were tested in Germany between 1991 and 1999.
(1) CNS: central nervous system.
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