JIM HUME MSP CALLS FOR END TO SHEEP CARCASS SPLITTING

10.26.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 1st Oct 2009

Jim Hume, Liberal Democrat MSP for the South of Scotland, has joined calls for an alternative to be found to the practice of sheep carcass splitting and has written to the Rural Affairs Minister to find a solution.

The practice of carcass splitting was introduced following the BSE crisis.

Jim Hume said:

"Farmers, along with many livestock markets and abattoirs, feel the human health related issues which first resulted in this regulation being introduced are now only of limited relevance, as any suggested theoretical link between TSE (Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies) in sheep and human health problems has never been shown to exist outside of the laboratory.

"There is therefore a strong belief that a more proportionate regulatory regime should be implemented, and at the very least that the industry should be allowed to remove the spinal cord by other means like suction, which is already permitted in other EU countries such as France.

"Indeed, there is compelling EU scientific evidence that lamb meat poses negligible risk to the human food chain and therefore the EU rules with regard to sheep age detection and the British TSE controls need to be changed.

"According to NFUS figures, splitting carcasses can devalue the product by up to 80%, and clearly there is a big push from the industry to find an alternative method of removing the spine. I believe that the Minister's Department should be trying to find a resolution."

ENDS