(Return tabled) Question No. 20 Mr. Alex Atamanenko: With regard to the horse slaughter industry in Canada: (a) what was the reason for the temporary halt, initiated by European Union (EU) officials, to horse meat imports from Canada on October 12, 2012; (b) has Canada participated in talks with EU officials regarding the safety of horse meat from Canada since that time, (i) if so, what topics were discussed, (ii) what conclusions were reached; (c) what restrictions effective in 2013 will be imposed upon the Canadian horse meat industry by the EU, (i) what is the anticipated impact of these restrictions on the frequency and type of drug residue testing on horse meat in Canada as well as on the data required on Equine Information Documents ...[+++] (EIDs), (ii) will the restrictions on prohibited/non-permitted drugs be further tightened; (d) is there any oversight by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on transport drivers and horse meat dealers listed on EIDs as current owners to check for a history of violations of the United States Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Transport, or CFIA transport regulations, (i) does the CFIA enhance its scrutiny of such violators or conduct follow-up investigations on those who have been flagged for violations, (ii) is this information shared with any other inter-connected government agency either in Canada or in the United States; (e) how often do CFIA inspectors do a visual inspection of the transports that arrive at the slaughter plants to ensure that the horses have been transported safely; (f) how many transport violations concerning horse slaughter transportation have been issued to transport drivers within the last five years, (i) how many warnings of violations have been issued, (ii) if the warnings have been ignored, how does the CFIA restrict or prohibit those transport drivers from conducting business in Canada; (g) how often does the CFIA conduct inspections of feedlots and how many warnings or violations were ...

1. Without prejudice to national legislation prohibiting certain types of methods, Member States shall ensure that a procedure is not carried out if another method or testing strategy for obtaining the result sought, not entailing the use of a live animal, is recognised under the legislation of the Union.

In order to supplement or amend certain non-essential elements of this Regulation, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty should be delegated to the Commission in respect of supplementing the list of products set out in Annex I to this Regulation; establishing the restrictions and derogations with regard to the sourcing of feed in the case of a designation of origin; establishing restrictions and derogations with regard to the slaughtering of live animals or with regard to the sourcing of raw materials; laying down rules which limit the information contained in the product specification; establishing the ...[+++] Union symbols; laying down additional transitional rules in order to protect the rights and legitimate interests of producers or stakeholders concerned; laying down further details on the eligibility criteria for the names of traditional specialities guaranteed; laying down detailed rules relating to the criteria for optional quality terms; reserving an additional optional quality term, laying down its conditions of use and amending those conditions; laying down derogations to the use of the term ‘mountain product’ and establishing the methods of production, and other criteria relevant for the application of that optional quality term, in particular, laying down the conditions under which raw materials or feedstuffs are permitted to come from outside the mountain areas; laying down additional rules for determining the generic status of terms in the Union; laying down rules for determining the use of the name of a plant variety or of an animal breed; defining the rules for carrying out the national objection procedure for joint applications concerning more than one national territory; and for complementing the rules of the application process, the opposition process, the amendment application process and the cancellation process in general.

Spread of the vaccine strain from vaccinated to unvaccinated target animals shall be investigated, using the recommended route of administration most likely to result in the spread. Moreover, it may be necessary to investigate the spread to non target species which could be highly susceptible to a live vaccine strain.

The specific call launched at the initiative of Franz FISCHLER, the Commissioner responsible for agriculture and rural developement, and Edith CRESSON, the Commissioner responsible for research, is based on the priorities identified by the Weissmann report and focuses on the following research areas: 1- Development of specific, sensitive, practical and rapid diagnostic tests for TSE infectivity or for the detection of disease specific markers for use in live animals in the pre-clinical and/or clinical phase of disease.

RESEARCH ON BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES (BSE) AND RELATED HUMAN DISEASES - COUNCIL CONCLUSIONS "WHEREAS the Council, in its Conclusions of 14 May 1996, stated that the issue of TSEs (transmissible spongiform encephalopathies) constitutes a problem in the field of public health and considered it necessary that all appropriate measures be taken to eliminate the risk of possible transmission of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), WHEREAS only scientific research can provide rational, valid answers to the numerous questions this pathology continues to pose, and guide governments on the decisions they will have to take, WHEREAS cooperation at Community level between national research teams can bring about real progress in knowledge in ...[+++] this area, and the Community dimension can consolidate the various methodologies, contribute to the use of harmonized criteria and facilitate a wider multi-disciplinary approach, The Council: - CONSIDERS it necessary that cooperation and coordination of research efforts and exchange of information in this field be significantly improved and CALLS UPON the Commission to take the necessary measures to this end; - INVITES the Commission to continue to provide updated information on the research efforts undertaken under the fourth framework programme and, in particular, to give an account of recent calls for proposals concerning bovine transmissible spongiform encephalopathies and possible links with neuro-degenerative diseases in humans; - CALLS UPON the Commission to reinforce its research activities on topics in this field, - covering both basic and applied biology and human and animal health aspects, as well as diagnostic aspects, - in particular within the LIFE SCIENCES programmes; - AGREES to reexamine this question at the next meeting of the Research Council (5 December 96) on the basis of a communication from the Commission, taking into account ongoing research activities, including work underway and planned in Member Stat ...