395. The Council considered in 1994 the use of BST in dairy cattle and the Press Notice announcing our position is at Appendix D. At that time, we called for the moratorium on the use of BST to be continued in the absence of a comprehensive study to determine the welfare of cows treated with BST. We recommended that BST should not be licensed for use in this country until such data were available.
396. Subsequently, the Agriculture Committee, in its Report on the UK Dairy Industry and the CAP Dairy Regime 7 found that it was unable to support a continuation of the moratorium within the EU. However, the Committee did call for further research into the effects of BST on the welfare of dairy cattle so that the position becomes absolutely clear in scientific terms.
397. Further studies 8 on the effects of BST on cattle have confirmed that cattle treated with BST, to increase their yield, are more likely to have mastitis or lameness and possibly other metabolic disorders.
398. FAWC has also considered a summary of confidential data supplied by the manufacturers of BST to support an appeal to the Medicines Commission which stated that there was no justification in terms of animal welfare to refuse to grant marketing authorisations for BST products. However, without access to the supporting data, the Council is unable to revise its earlier conclusion that the use of BST is unacceptable on welfare grounds.
7. First Report of the Agriculture Committee, House of Commons (1996); The UK Dairy Industry and the CAP Dairy Regime.
8. Broom, D M (1995). Measuring the effects of management methods, systems, high production efficiency and biotechnology on farm animal welfare. In: Issues in Agriculture Bioethics, ed T B Mepham, G A Tucker and J Wiseman, 319-334. Nottingham: Nottingham University Press.
Broom, D M (1997). Housing, production level and welfare. Proc. 9th Int. Conf. Prod. Dis. Farm. Anim. 1995, ed H Martens, 272-281. Stuttgart: Enke.