. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/SPS/GEN/1180 
20 July 2012 
 (12-3983) 
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Original: Spanish 
  
 
HEALTH STATUS WITH REGARD TO BOVINE SPONGIFORM 
ENCEPHALOPATHY (BSE) AND OTHER TRANSMISSIBLE 
SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES (TSE) 
 
Communication from Argentina 
 
  The following communication, received on 10 July 2012, is being circulated at the request of 
the delegation of Argentina. 
 
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 1. Argentina has been recognized by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) as a 
negligible BSE-risk country since 2007 and is fr ee from animal TSEs.  Neither TSEs in animals nor 
cases of variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease have  ever been diagnosed in Argentina. 
The National Programme for the Prevention and Surveillance of Transmissible Spongiform 
Encephalopathies (TSEs) in Animals encompasses the following strategies:  
 Prevention of the entry of TSE agents:  Import controls since 1988;  registration and 
monitoring of imported ruminant breeding stock since 1995;  and analyses to detect 
banned ruminant-derived proteins in imported feed since 2001. 
 
 Prevention of agent recycling and amplifica tion:  Preventive measures in relation to 
the production, marketing and transport of animal meat-and-bone meal (MBM);  
elimination of materials that pose a risk of spreading TSEs (cerebrum, cerebellum and 
medulla);  a ban on feeding ruminants with proteins of animal origin (since 1995);  
and the mandatory use of a double producti on line in plants processing feed for both 
ruminants and non-ruminants.  The above-mentioned ban is officially controlled by the National Agriculture and Food Quality and Health Service (SENASA) by means 
of annual sampling in ruminant feed pr ocessing plants and rural smallholdings.  
Samples are processed in the official SENASA laboratory using microscopy and 
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) techniques. 
 
 Epidemiological surveillance:  This incl udes both passive surveillance, through the 
mandatory reporting of cases displaying signs compatible with BSE or scrapie, and 
active surveillance, through st atistical sampling of the categories of animals at 
greatest risk of developing the diseases.  From 1992 to date, more than 45,000 samples from bovine animals have been analysed and tested negative.  
Argentina also has an OIE Reference La boratory for the diagnosis of BSE and 
scrapie, belonging to the National Institute  of Agricultural Technology (INTA) under 
the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.  G/SPS/GEN/1180 
Page 2  
 
   Dissemination and ongoing training and edu cation system:  Implemented in 1992.  
2. In conjunction with SENASA, the Neuropathol ogical Reference Centre for Transmissible 
Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs),  which has been  operating within the framework of the 
FLENI Institute since 1983, carries out epidemiologi cal surveillance of human beings for variant 
Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD) as a differential diagnosis of CJD, given that no cases of vCJD 
have been diagnosed in Argentina to date. 
3. SENASA has thus been implementing, in the context of the National Programme for the 
Prevention and Surveillance of TSEs in Animals,  prevention and surveillance measures for these 
diseases in Argentina for more than 20 years. 
4. The timely adoption, as of 1988, of prevention and surveillance measures by Argentina, in 
line with the international recommendations of the Wo rld Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), have 
enabled it to remain free of these pathologies, wh ile protecting domestic consumers and remaining 
well positioned at international leve l with regard to health and hygiene guarantees for cattle rearing, 
the food industry and related by-products for us e in the biomedical and cosmetics industries, 
inter alia . 
5. In this context, as a supplier of meat and m eat by-products, Argentina has been and remains 
subject to assessments by third countries, trade blo cs and international organizations and has so far 
always enjoyed an excellent classification in the most favourable risk category, corresponding to 
negligible BSE risk, a status which it reviews and s ubstantiates on an annual basis in order to sustain 
its markets. 
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