Informe del Comité Científico de la Agencia Española de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (AESAN) sobre la eficacia de la maduración superior a 60 días de los quesos de cabra y otras especies elaborados con leche cruda procedente de rebaños en los que se ha detectado la tuberculosis para garantizar su inocuidad

Abstract

Royal Decree 1086/2020 which regulates and makes flexible certain conditions for applying the European Union’s provisions on hygiene in the production and marketing of food products and regulates activities excluded from its area of application, permits the flexibility included in European Union regulations to be applied at the national level and to use milk from herds that do not fulfil the requirements with regard to brucellosis and tuberculosis, with the same requirements as in Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004. In the case of ovine and caprine herds that do not fulfil the requirements for tuberculosis, the Regulation opens the doors to other possible processing methods that ensure food safety. Therefore, the AESAN Scientific Committee has been requested to establish if maturation for a period greater than 60 days for cheeses produced with raw goat’s milk or from other species sensitive to tuberculosis other than bovine tuberculosis, from females that do not have a positive reaction to tuberculosis tests or display symptoms of this disease but belong to a herd where it has been detected, may ensure the safety of these cheeses with regard to tuberculosis. The Scientific Committee concludes that although the prevalence of tuberculosis in Europe is low, the global importance of this disease requires extreme precautions for monitoring the main sources of contagion, raw milk and dairy products being one of the main source of contamination in persons. The special resistance of the causative agents of tuberculosis are one of the main reasons for its survival in dairy products, there being few differences between them with regard to the species that produces the milk. Both classical references as well as more recent literature on the topic has established the survival of the causative agents of tuberculosis for periods greater than 60 days. For this reason, it cannot be guaranteed that maturation for a period greater than 60 days eliminates the members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex.