On December 2, 2022, the European Commission issued the draft regulation Ares (2022) No. 8360797, which intends to amend Annex IV, VIII and IX of Regulation (EC) No 999/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council on animal feeding, placing on the market and importing, to revise the relevant requirements for transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE).

The main contents of the amendments include:

(1) It is proposed to issue the Commission’s authorization regulations to revise the requirements for listing, importation and approval of animal and product processing factories;

(2) Revise the applicable circumstances where the risk of typical scrapie is negligible, such as no cases of typical scrapie have been confirmed in at least the previous seven years;

(3) Partial revisions to Annex IX. Replace point 3(c) of Chapter D, Section B with the following: Milk and milk products from sheep or goats are sourced from breeding facilities where no cases of typical scrapie have been diagnosed for at least the past seven years; all animals confirmed to have typical scrapie are have been killed and destroyed, and the reared animals have undergone intensive surveillance for TSE for at least two years from the date of confirmation of the last typical scrapie case, including the presence of TSE in accordance with the laboratory methods specified in Appendix X, Chapter C Negative test results, etc. 

The comment period for the draft regulations ends on December 30, 2022.