BSE in Terrestrial Code

Major changes in Terrestrial Code are made in Chapter 11.4 – Bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

One of the кey changes is the date from which the risk of BSE agents being recycled within the bovine population has been negligible, Etienne Bonbon, President of the Terrestrial Animal Health Standards Commission told at the seminar on BSE for the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union.

New Code Adopted in 2023 but changes on Procedures on BSE status recognition and maintenance fully applicable since May 2024. 

BSE as a disease includes both classical and atypical forms, but the WOAH case definition does not include atypical BSE anymore, as it does not comply with the criteria for listing (it is therefore no longer ‘notifiable’). Only classical BSE is currently notifiable, occurrence of atypical cases and their management will be provided to WOAH by Members having a BSE risk status when reconfirming their said status.

Criteria for the determination of the BSE risk: 

• risk assessment always includes entry, exposure and consequence;
• risk mitigation measures can be non-specific (livestock management practices) or specific (feed bans);
• includes surveillance and ‘history’ of management of cases of atypical and classical BSE.

Surveillance no longer requires testing to meet a target number of points. It includes all bovines that display signs on the clinical spectrum of BSE, which requires good knowledge of nervous disorders for BSE differential diagnosis.

In case of occurrence of a classical BSE case, maintenance of controlled or negligible status requires demonstration that the risk of BSE agents being recycled within the bovine population has continued to be negligible, based on a thorough epidemiological investigation, reviewed by the Scientific Commission for Animal Diseases.

Recommendations for trade: 

•  specific risk materials (with greatest BSE infectivity or contaminated by them) are banned from trade
• are based not only on the status of the countries but also on the date of birth of the exported bovines or products thereof; hence the importance of animal identification & traceability