AGRICULTURE: EURO-MPS SUPPORT NEW MEASURES TO COMBAT SCRAPIE.

• Position: Brief Article

Given the scientific hypothesis that scrapie in sheep might have evolved into BSE in cattle, and in the light of experiments in which sheep that were fed BSE-contaminated feed contracted a disease indistinguishable from BSE, the rapporteur (himself the erstwhile Chairman of the Parliament's Temporary Committee of Inquiry into the BSE Crisis) called the new legislation "a welcome development". The new rules were one of the European Parliament's key demands in its latest follow-up report on the BSE crisis.Mr Boge welcomed the creation of a legal base for the control of scrapie in sheep and approved of the transfer of existing legislation on scrapie, which is restricted to trade in live sheep and goats, to a single, comprehensive set of new rules which would cover TSEs affecting all animals throughout the EU and are designed to prevent infections being transmitted in food or animal feed.Competing draft legislation.The draft Directive currently being examined by the Parliament's Agriculture Committee aims to replace measures specifically concerning sheep in Council Directive 91/68/EEC...