The Government today published proposals for implementing an EU requirement for the establishment of a voluntary UK wide framework to recognise the TSE resistant status of certain sheep flocks under the National Scrapie Plan.
Legislation, introduced by the European Commission in February 2003, lays out the requirement for the establishment of a framework to recognise the TSE resistant status of flocks of sheep. The legislation requires the establishment of two levels of recognition as a minimum, but allows member states to grant recognition on further levels to suit national requirements.
UK Rural Affairs Departments consider that a two tier system of recognition which complies solely with the EU minimum requirements would not sufficiently represent the stratified UK sheep industry and would take little account of the significant variations in the levels of resistant genotype frequencies by breed or by sector.
As this would exclude a significant proportion of sheep flocks from the framework, the Government is proposing to introduce additional levels of categories over and above those required by the EU legislation. The proposed framework will be open to all flocks which possess National Scrapie Plan registered rams.
The framework will benefit sheep farmers by encouraging them to progressively reduce and remove the most TSE susceptible rams from their flocks. In addition, it will facilitate the application of risk reduction strategies, particularly by those who are reliant on the purchase of breeding stock by enabling them to purchase sheep from flocks with greater levels of resistance to TSE's.