Prophylaxis of BSE by controlling meat and bone meals - The ELISA heating test and the criterias for assessment

The BSE epidemic among cattle has yet not been conquered. Inadequately heat ed meat and bone meals have caused it. The situation will beconsiderably im proved when the production of the material is adopted to the legal regulati ons. In one of the recent reports of the EU commission about veterinary ins pection visits it is stated: "not one member, except one, followed the deci ssion completely". This fact is very regrettable as there exists a test wit h which the heating effect can be assured in the final product; it is the E LISA meat meal heating test worked out in Kulmbach (HOFMANN, 1996). The tes t enables the monitoring of the effectiveness of heating in the meat meal p lants and to control the "material flow". Its application in the EU would e xclude inadequately heated meat meals from the feed and finally will help t o elimate the reasons for BSE, Two interlaboratory trials, one in Germany a nd one in the EU, have confirmed the practicability and reliability of the ELISA-test. The criteria for the assessment of proper heated meat meals (R < 3, 1, PK < 20,4) have been established with respect to the legal regulati ons. A general lowering of these limitation values is neither necessary nor justified at the present situation of regulation, It implies the danger of false-positive results.