The European Parliament has supported EU Commission proposals to relax rules permitting the use of animal protein in animal feed. The controversial move has been welcomed by industry groups. The move marks an end to 2001 restrictions which banned PAPs in the EU and saw livestock being fed exclusively on grain.

German Socialist MEP Dagmar Roth-Behrendt's report would permit pig and poultry protein to be used in animal feed while maintaining the ban on cattle and sheep protein in an attempt to prevent another outbreak similar to the Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) crisis, which resulted in a ban on British beef exports lasting ten years, between 1996 and 2006.

The reintroduction of bone meal and meat, a result of the EU’s ‘protein deficit’, was facilitated by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), who, on 12th January this year deemed the risks connected to a residual presence of processed animal proteins in feed “negligible.” However, MEPs have repeatedly stressed the need for stringent conditions and guarantees, which they say must be respected.

NFU Scotland’s president, Nigel Miller welcomed the move. In a statement yesterday Miller said, "This decision has been in the pipeline for quite a while but it is yet another useful step in a fairly precautious but science-based journey to unwinding Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy regulations. The European Food Safety Authority were looking at validation systems so that products could be screened for genetic detail, meaning that the correct protein will end up in the correct animal feed supply chain.

"Freeing up the use of this natural protein is of vital importance given that the EU is only 40% self sufficient in protein animal feed and commodity prices remain very high. The proteins that can be used as a result of this decision provide the main high quality feed source worldwide. Today's development will lift confidence in the control measures which have seen BSE become a rare disease and, indeed absent in many parts of the EU."

However, the European Parliament was extremely cautious over the decision to reintroduce bonemeal into feeds. MEPS called for strict conditions on the gradual lifting of the ban. In a statement from Strasbourg, MEPs said the significant decline in cases of BSE in the EU was not a reason to reduce surveillance, in response to the non-legislative resolution drafted by Dagmar Roth Behrendt.

In addition to the exclusion of sheep and cows, due to transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, the draft states that processed animal proteins must only be fed to non herbivores; pigs, poultry and fish, than cannibalism is expressly forbidden and that only processed animal proteins fit for human consumption should be used, add MEPs.