Ministry checks BSE threat to pets

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has begun a study of imported pet food to see whether cats and dogs can get mad-cow disease from it.

But the ministry's risk management national manager, Stuart MacDiarmid, doubted that New Zealand's pets were at risk from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

While cats had been known to contract the feline equivalent (FSE), it had never been found in dogs, he said.

Chickens and rabbits could not get BSE, as shown when some were injected with it.

Dr MacDiarmid said 87 cats in Britain had contracted FSE. Almost all were born before 1990, the year the pet-food industry banned suspect tissue. A ban on such tissue in food for human consumption followed a few months later.

Six British cats born since 1990 had been found with FSE. It was believed these cases were due to poor enforcement of the ban in the early 1990s.

Dr MacDiarmid said that while it was often suggested the human version of BSE (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease) was due to eating beef, the real villain was believed to be meat stripped from cows' backbones

BSE was found only in the central nervous system of naturally infected cows, and the mechanically recovered meat included external extensions of the spinal column.

Dr MacDiarmid said the only imported canned pet foods were prescription foods such as for cats with kidney complaints. These generally came from the United States or Australia, both BSE-free.

- NZPA