Horse meat results published
The results of a Europe-wide beef product survey have now been published by the European Commission.
In February, all member states were asked by the Commission to conduct a survey of beef products, testing for the presence of horse DNA.
For the UK survey, 150 samples of beef products were taken, of which none were found to contain horse DNA at or above the 1 per cent threshold for reporting.
All results were reported to the European Commission last week by the Food Standards Agency (FSA). The UK results have been published alongside those from the other member states.
Member states were additionally asked to provide information on phenylbutazone, or bute, testing being conducted in slaughterhouses.
In the UK, a "positive release system" was introduced by the FSA on 11 February. All horses slaughtered in the UK must now be tested for the presence of bute, and only carcasses testing negative for the drug are released into the food chain.
The FSA has reported that 836 carcasses have been tested between 11 February and 4 April, of which fourteen were found to contain bute, and were prevented from entering the food chain.
On 16 April, the European Commission reported that a total of 7259 tests have been carried out by the competent authorities across 27 EU countries. Of the 4144 samples tested for horse meat DNA, 193 found positive traces (4.66 per cent). 16 samples out of 3115 tested showed positive traces of bute (0.51 per cent).
Click here to view the European Commission results.
With Strangles Awareness Week just around the corner (5-11 May), vets are being encouraged to share a survey about the disease with their horse-owning clients.
