Volume 5: Animal Health, 1989-96
4b. Implementation, enforcement and monitoring of the animal SBO ban: discussion
What went wrong?

4.641 The stimulus for the introduction of the animal SBO ban was experimental transmission of BSE by inoculation to a pig. It is a mercy that pigs have proved not to be susceptible to oral infection with BSE. Had this not been the case, the animal SBO ban would, for the reasons we have given, have failed to prevent a feed-borne epidemic of porcine spongiform encephalopathy, with the further risk of onward transmission to humans.

4.642 In writing to Mr Hogg and Mrs Browning on 13 July 1995 about unsatisfactory treatment of SBO in slaughterhouses, Mr Packer wrote: 'We must expect questions on why we allowed this situation to persist for so long'. ¹ In Phase 2 of the Inquiry we sought answers to Mr Packer's question from those involved. The shortcomings which we focused on are those which led to a widespread failure to keep SBO separate from other matter, and it is those shortcomings which we shall examine in the remainder of this chapter. We have sought to determine how it was that a scheme was introduced and operated for over four years which had such serious shortcomings.