An EU veterinary inspection team sent to Northern Ireland to look at its beef-tracking system has suggested major reforms of slaughtering practices. The move is likely to delay further the return of the North's overwhelmingly BSE-free beef to the world market, but Commission and British sources were yesterday playing down any suggestion of a major rift on the issue.
Commission and member-state scientists have already approved in principle British proposals for a certified herd scheme allowing animals from herds free of BSE for at least eight years to return to the market. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom where a sufficiently rigorous tracing system exists, and the inspection mission was intended to confirm that all controls were in place.
But the inspectors argue that the practice of slaughtering beef for export in the same factories as older animals and beef intended for the UK could lead either to cross-contamination or the mixing of batches.
During the summer some of the beef smuggled into Belgium from the UK is believed to have originated in Northern Ireland, giving rise to additional concerns in Brussels.
At present, beef for different purposes is slaughtered in different time slots, with the machines cleaned after each session. The Commission's reservations are likely to mean either slaughtering in separate factories or in strictly segregated facilities.
The problem is complicated by the need also to separate the slaughtering of beef over 30 months old and meat originating from outside the UK, notably from the Republic, which has been supplying significant quantities of beef to the North in recent months.
British and Commission officials are assessing the document and will meet to see what has to be done, but British sources are emphasising their willingness to co-operate. A spokesman for the Ulster Farmers' Union said it does not regard the report as a major obstacle.
The issue was raised in a meeting in Brussels on Monday between the British Agriculture Secretary, Dr Jack Cunningham, and the Commissioner responsible, Ms Emma Bonino.
Also raised was the separate issue of the continued storage in the North, awaiting incineration, of stockpiles of up to 50,000 tonnes of meat and bonemeal from potentially diseased cattle.
