The UK reduced the age limit for removing the vertebral column in cattle from 30 to 24 months when the beef ban was lifted last year – to bring it more into line with the rest of the EU, where the limit is 12 months.

This has caused significant problems for farmers and butchers, particularly in Scotland, where more than half of prime cattle are slaughtered between 24 and 30 months.

The UK has never accepted the scientific basis for a 24-month age limit and asked EFSA to clarify the risk. After a long delay, EFSA’s report has been published, but has not provided the clarity some had hoped for to back the UK’s case for a return to the 30-month limit.

The report reiterated EFSA’s 2005 advice that BSE infectivity would be undetectable or still absent in the central nervous system of animals aged 33 months – that is three-quarters of the incubation time of BSE.

Source: Farmers Guardian