TSE risk assessment from carcasses of ovine and caprine animals below 6 months of age from TSE infected flocks intended for human consumption 1 Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Biological Hazards

SUMMARY Following a request from the European Commission, the Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) was asked to deliver a scientific Opinion on a TSE risk assessment from carcasses of ovine and caprine animals below 6 months of age from TSE infected flocks intended for human consumption. Its terms of reference were as follows: to provide an assessment on the existence of a significant additional risk to human health compared with the actual situation, founded on the scientific evidences, from the consumption of carcasses from ovine or caprine animals below 6 months of age from TSE affected flocks (without been subjected to a TSE rapid test and irrespectively of the genotype) provided that the entire head and the viscera of the thoracic and abdominal cavities are removed and excluded from human consumption and provided that BSE is excluded (in the outbreak) according to the procedure laid down in 3.2 (c), Chapter C of Annex X to the Regulation (EC) 999/2001. After clarification from the Commission, the BIOHAZ Panel was able to refine the ToR to focus on the change of human exposure that might result from the proposed change of risk management procedure and that it specifically required an estimate of the relative levels of TSE infectivity in the carcass of a lamb or kid less than 3 months of age from which spleen and ileum have been removed, compared to the carcass of a lamb or kid less than 6 months of age from which the spleen, the ileum, the head and the viscera of the abdominal and thoracic cavity have been removed.