Press Release: Commission approves EURO 155 million to fight animal diseases

A financial package to fight transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) and other animal diseases in the EU in 2002 was approved by the European Commission on 16 October 2001.The EU budget will contribute €114 million for financing BSE and scrapie monitoring through the purchase of test kits. The Commission also adopted funding provisions for the 2002 programmes eradicating animal diseases and preventing zoonoses. The EU will contribute €40.45 million from its resources in the veterinary field for the eradication and monitoring of 13 major animal diseases in the Member States. The diseases targeted by the programmes have implications for both human and animal health or cause serious losses in livestock farming and therefore constitute barriers to intra-EU or international trade.