United Kingdom-BSE Testing the costs.

UNITED KINGDOM-BSE TESTING WHO PAYS.

While abattoirs clearly face a significant bill from the two or three testing service laboratories currently approved – estimates range up to £15/head or so – the extent to which that cost can or will be passed in either direction along the food chain is still up for negotiation in many cases..

The National Beef Association for one is worried the cost is simply being passed back to deadweight sellers as a deduction and director Kim Haywood said the organisation’s argument had always been that, as BSE testing was essentially a public health issue, the costs should be borne at the retail end.

"The trouble is there was no discussion on this – the Government just ’sneaked it in’ that industry would pick up the cost once the switch was made from 30 months to 48 months. The issue was clouded at the time by the revoked proposal for triple segregation of cattle in lairage and on the line."

Some abattoirs are currently covering the cost themselves, but are in the process of negotiating with customers.

The British Meat Processors’ Association said it was up to individual plants to take a commercial decision on how they handled the charge.

Some, said a spokesman, might well be in a position to negotiate lower costs with their testing provider based on volume. And with an additional laboratory expected to come on-line, there was clearly scope for an element of competition on charges.

The Livestock Auctioneers Association has already made its position perfectly clear – members would not be making any form of deduction on behalf of cull cow buyers to cover the cost of brain stem tests.