Case of mad cow disease prompts firing of 110 at Danish slaughterhouse

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Associated Press

March 2, 2000 2:18 p.m. EST

 

COPENHAGEN, Denmark

Danish Crown, Denmark's largest slaughterhouse, said Thursday it has fired 110

employees because of the drop in demand for its meat following a mad cow disease

scare.

 

One Danish-born cow was destroyed in late January because it had the disease,

authorities said Monday. They protectively recalled some meat products.

Neighboring Norway, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have barred imports of Danish

meat, and some Swedish supermarket chains voluntarily pulled the meat

from their shelves.

 

As a result, Danish Crown was forced to fire 110 employees, the slaughterhouse

said. Two hundred others have volunteered to take time off until production

returns to normal, spokeswoman Gudrun Andreasen said.

 

On Thursday, a Swedish supermarket chain, which accounts for 20 percent of the

country's annual 9,000 tons of Danish meat imports, resumed sales after

being assured by Swedish authorities that it carried no risks for bovine

spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.

 

Mad cow disease caused a panic in Europe in the late 1980 and early 1990s after

British cattle contracted the disease, which was linked to a devastating

human brain ailment.

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