Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/1972, CWD surveillance programme in cervids (amending Annexes I and III of Regulation 999/2001)

Key facts

• The act was adopted on 30 October 2017 as Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/1972, amending Annexes I and III of Regulation 999/2001 and repealing Decision 2007/182/EC; it is binding and directly applicable in all Member States.
• It was published in the Official Journal, series L 281, on 31 October 2017 (from a search excerpt of EUR-Lex; the page itself did not load).
• Scope is six Member States: Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden. Norway and Iceland were named in EFSA's recommendation but are not covered by the regulation.
• Testing ran from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2020, with sample collection allowed from 2017. Species are Eurasian tundra reindeer, Finnish forest reindeer, moose, roe deer, white-tailed deer and red deer, and a country may cover a subset if it submits a documented risk assessment.
• Sampling is two-stage: up to 100 primary sampling units per category (farmed or captive; wild or semi-domesticated), then animals until 30 are tested per unit, aiming for up to 3,000 per category per country. Only animals over 12 months are used, favouring fallen, culled, sick, injured or unfit-for-consumption animals.
• The obex is sampled from every animal; head lymph nodes are added where feasible. Rapid tests used for cattle and small ruminants are accepted for cervids, positive or inconclusive results need confirmation by immunohistochemistry or Western blot, and unconfirmed cases go to the EU reference laboratory. Prion protein genotyping is required for positives.
• The annex adds definitions of farmed and captive, wild and semi-domesticated cervids, annual reporting items for 2018 to 2020 sent on to EFSA, and allows voluntary monitoring after 2020 and in other countries.
• The earlier survey under Decision 2007/182/EC (2007 to 2010) took more than 13,000 samples from 21 Member States and Norway with no positive; EFSA later said its design limits meant it neither supported nor refuted that CWD is absent from the EU.
• In 2020, the last programme year, the six countries tested 6,974 cervids and found two moose cases, one in Finland and one in Sweden; Norway, outside the act, tested 22,528 cervids and found two positives.
• Search excerpts of EFSA reports give programme totals of 20,024 cervids over 2018 to 2020, three positive Swedish moose in 2019 and a sensitivity lower than EFSA's 2017 proposal had expected; these were not confirmed against the full reports.
• Finland's authority reports TSE in three old female moose (Kuhmo 2018, Laukaa 2020, Kyyjarvi 2022) but states that CWD has not been reported in Finland and presumes Nordic moose TSE is endogenous and non-infectious.
• Sweden's first case was an older female moose in Arjeplog in March 2019 (search excerpt); Sweden later extended intensified monitoring into early 2022.

Timeline

1. 2016Norway confirms the first European CWD case, in a wild reindeer, followed by a moose in May.
2. 2017Regulation 2017/1972 adopted 30 October and published 31 October.
3. 2018Programme testing period begins on 1 January.
4. 2018First Finnish moose with TSE found at Kuhmo.
5. 2019First Swedish CWD moose case at Arjeplog.
6. 2020Programme testing period ends on 31 December.
7. 2021EFSA publishes the 2020 EU TSE report describing 2020 as the last programme year.