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Specified risk material removal and cutting plant authorisation

What specified risk material is, how to remove it from your livestock and the authorisation required for cutting plants to carry it out

Last updated: 13 December 2017
Last updated: 13 December 2017

Specified risk material (SRM) are parts of cattle, sheep and goats that are most likely to pose a risk of infectivity from a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) disease. It is essential that it is removed from both the human and animal food chains and destroyed.

A specified risk material (SRM) is either a Vertebral Column (VC) in cattle older than 30 months old.

You must follow the domestic Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE) Regulations.

It states that when SRM is a vertebral column from a bovine carcass, it can only be removed by slaughterhouses and in authorised cutting plant.

Guide to specified risk material (SRM) removal

England, Northern Ireland and Wales

Applying for authorisation

To apply for authorisation to remove VC in bovines older than 30 months, you must provide us with a copy of your Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), and a completed Statutory Risk Material Removal application form. You can download the latter below.

An authorisation can be amended, suspended or revoked if it no longer meets the requirements in regulations nine and ten of the TSE Regulations.

Regulation eleven of the TSE Regulations provides the right to appeal any suspension or revocation notice within 21 days of the date the notice is served. In the event of an appeal, written representation can be made to Approvals and Registration Team.

The appeal will then be referred to the Operations Head Veterinarian who will respond within 20 working days of receipt.