Advice of the Scientific Committee of the Belgian Food Safety Agency regarding meat inspection without incisions for cattle until the age of eight months - partim prioritization of zoonotic agents and monitoring

The Scientific Committee has inventoried the most important zoonoses for veal calves in Belgium and has characterized them on the basis of 4 criteria: probability of transfer to humans through consumption of calf meat, estimated prevalence in Belgium among veal calves, gravity of the disease in humans and the number of reported human cases in Belgium. On the basis of the data for the 4 criteria (annex 2), the Scientific Committee has concluded that, under the present epidemiologic circumstances, salmonellosis and human pathogenic E. coli are the 2 most important zoonoses amongst veal calves in Belgium. Therefore a monitoring program in living veal calves within the framework of a meat inspection without incisions needs to contain at least these 2 zoonoses and is preferably based on bacteriologic examination of feces. 
Because the antimicrobial consumption and resistance are high in the veal industry, the Scientific Committee recommends to continue the already existing monitoring of antimicrobial consumption and resistance of indicator bacteria. Also the monitoring of some specific multi-resistant bacteria (LA-MRSA) and resistance genes of great importance for human health (ESBL) needs to be continued. 
There is frequent import of veal calves from countries of which the epidemiologic situation is not necessarily the same as in Belgium. This information needs to be taken into account for the practical implementation of a monitoring program within the framework of a meat inspection without incisions.