Search

Directive 2002/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 May 2002 on undesirable substances in animal feed lists a range of substances from botanical origin (weed seeds) and additionally some chemical compounds directly originating from specific weeds. In order to examine the actual status of enforcement and of the present occurrence of these botanical substances, a survey was carried out. A questionnaire was sent to 103 laboratories, including official control labs from all member states of the European Union. The results, indicating the frequency of occurrence as far as reported, are compared to the publications of the EU Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF). A total of 44 questionnaires was returned (42.7%) from 22 member states. Ten member states predominantly from north-western Europe appeared to have an active monitoring of botanical undesirable substances. The questionnaire results did not indicate that the other member states enforce this part of Directive 2002/32/EC. Reports on the frequency of occurrence include: a few to 25-50% of the samples contain traces of ergot (8 member states), a few to 24% contain at least some traces of thorn apple (6 member states), zero to 17% contain some castor oil plant seeds (3 member states), zero to a few samples contain Crotalaria seeds (3 member states), and zero to 6% contain traces of Sareptian mustard (4 member states). One member state conducted extra surveillance since several cases of animal intoxications have been reported. In some cases a coincidence with undesirable botanical substances was found.

In the framework of the European Union funded research project STRATFEED for detection and identification of animal proteins in feeds, the microscopic method was optimized at several key steps and better documented. A check list was developed for uniform reporting. Characters of bone fragments, hairs, muscles and gills are fully documented. A so-called muscle ratio has been developed for the identification of muscle fibers at the level of vertebrate classes (mammals, birds and fishes). Both the improved protocol and the entire range of characters which can be observed, are documented in a Decision Support System called ARIES (Animal Remains Identification and Evaluation System). A second internet-based system called STRATFEED-DSS exclusively assists in identification of animal particles in feeds. A new strategy with microscopy as screening technique and either DNA or protein identification as confirmation technique is proposed. The advantages of this combination are the extremely low level of false negatives, low detection limits and the heat-resistant nature of microscopic detection, together with the possibility of a very specific identification of particles by one of the other methods.