Volume 10: Economic Impact and International Trade
6. The export of live cattle, beef, and bovine semen and embryos
Bovine semen and embryos
Exports to EU Member States
Exports to non-EU countries

Exports to EU Member States

6.28 The Scientific Veterinary Committee Sub-Group, chaired by Mr Raymond Bradley, met in Brussels on 17 January 1992. ¹ It considered the risks from trade in certain products including semen and embryos. Given that in transmission studies to susceptible mice no detectable infectivity was found in semen from a BSE-affected bull, the Sub-Group concluded that additional guarantees were not required for trade in bovine semen as there was 'negligible' risk.

6.29 However, they concluded that safeguards were necessary for trade in bovine embryos. The Sub-Group's report stated:

Maternal transmission occurs in sheep with scrapie. At the present time, and with current knowledge of BSE, we cannot be sure that maternal transmission will not occur at all. However, the epidemiological data suggests that it is most unlikely to occur at more than a trivial level. Taking into account the information reported for sheep embryos . . . and despite there being no evidence to positively demonstrate infectivity in bovine embryos, as a precautionary measure the recommendations below provide extra safeguards to reduce any hypothetical risks from bovine embryo transfer to a negligible level and bring embryos under the same regulations (other than age) as govern trade in live calves . . .

The risk of transmitting disease via the embryo may be slightly more than negligible. To reduce this slight risk to negligible it is recommended that trade in embryos from countries with a high annual incidence of BSE should be restricted to those derived from:

female donors born after the introduction of a prohibition on the feeding of ruminant protein to cattle and which are not the progeny of affected females. ²

6.30 This led to Commission Decision 92/290/EEC of 14 May 1992 which required that the UK should not send to other Member States embryos of 'the domestic bovine species':

1. derived from females in which, at the time of sending, BSE was suspected or confirmed; or
2. derived from females born before 18 July 1988.

6.31 In addition to the measures specifically relating to exports from the UK, the Decision likewise banned the trade between any Member States of bovine embryos derived from females in which, at the time of sending, BSE was suspected or confirmed.

6.32 Article 3 of the Decision required that the embryos leaving the UK must be certified as complying with the Decision. In Great Britain MAFF checked the BSE status of the female donor and her grandmother via the central database before certifying her as an eligible donor. The decision required the Government to make full use of such records to guarantee the identification of donors and embryos. ³

6.33 Figure 6.7 below shows that exports of bovine semen to EU countries fluctuated quite considerably over the period for which we have records. There were no measures adopted by the EU to restrict UK exports of bovine semen before March 1996. The value of exports of bovine semen grew steadily between 1986 and 1990 before falling to negligible levels in 1993. However, the level of exports in 1994 and 1995 was considerably higher than at any time between 1986 and 1996.

6.34 The Inquiry has been unable to obtain figures for exports of bovine embryos in the years prior to 1993. This is because before then export data on bovine embryos were recorded as 'Animal products not elsewhere specified'. It was only in 1993 that embryos received their own commodity classification for the purposes of HM Customs and Excise records.

6.35 The statistics that we do have for bovine embryos indicate that were no particularly significant exports to EU Member States in the years 1993-96. Figure 6.8 below shows the total exports of embryos during that period.

Figure 6.7: Bovine semen exports, 1986-96

Figure 6.8: Bovine embryo exports, 1993-96

Exports to non-EU countries

6.36 As we have seen, Australia had suspended all imports of live cattle, semen and embryos by July 1988. By July 1989 a similar embargo had been introduced by New Zealand. The United States had introduced a requirement that all bovine semen and embryos imported from the UK should come from BSE-free herds and that the dam and sire of the donor should not be confirmed BSE cases. South Africa had imposed a similar restriction in respect of embryos. Sweden had introduced an embargo on importation of bovine semen from the UK.

6.37 Exports of bovine semen to non-EU countries declined steadily after peaking in 1988, as Figure 6.7 shows.