EU to propose compulsory mad cow disease tests

[Guest guest]

March 28, 2000

Web posted at: 11:17 AM EST (1617 GMT)

 

BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) -- The European Commission is set to propose

compulsory tests on cattle for mad cow disease in a bid to build a realistic

picture of a disease many fear is under-reported, European Union officials said

on Tuesday.

 

The proposal, to be endorsed by a full Commission meeting on Wednesday, will

force all European Union countries to undertake random tests, focusing on fallen

stock -- those animals that die on the farm for no apparent reason.

 

" We hope the program will provide better information on the incidence of BSE in

member states, " Beate Gminder, spokeswoman for EU Food Safety Commissioner David

Byrne told Reuters.

 

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, continues to cause

controversy in Europe, years after it was first discovered in Britain in the

late 1980s.

 

Scientists say it is still too early to say how many people will die from a new

form of the brain-wasting Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (nvCJD), believed to be

caused by eating BSE-infected meat.

 

The nvCJD death toll in Britain has risen above 50, and may eventually reach

thousands, experts say.

 

All British beef exports were banned by the Commission in March 1996. The

embargo was lifted last July after millions of cattle were slaughtered at a cost

running to billions of pounds.

 

Defying EU law, France refused to lift its ban on British beef, an action which

sparked a fierce anti-French media campaign in Britain and damaged cross-Channel

relations.

 

Paris has now been taken to the European Court over the ban.

 

There was evidence of a thaw in relations on Tuesday as Britain's Prince Charles

and one of France's top chefs Raymond Blanc joined forces to showcase British

beef at the Frenchman's Michelin-starred restaurant near Oxford, England.

 

French testing already underway

 

France itself has come in for recent criticism over its own BSE incidence and

health controls. Twelve cases have been reported so far this year and Paris has

recently announced its own national testing program.

 

An EU report last month said traces of meat and bone meal continued to be found

in French animal feed despite a July 1996 ban on cows being fed animal proteins.

 

The report follows earlier criticism that sewage sludge had also been added to

cattle feed. France said the practice had stopped but the news further fueled

British indignation.

 

France will test 40,000 cattle out of its huge national herd of 21 million, and

French Farm Minister Jean Glavany has warned the results may produce unwelcome

news.

 

Under the EU proposal, member states will be able to choose one of three tests

on the market -- one from France, one from Switzerland and another from Ireland.

 

Fears that cases still go unreported, with potentially infected meat entering

the food chain, have been highlighted by research in Switzerland, where tests

uncovered three BSE cases among 7,000 supposedly safe cattle heading for the

slaughterhouse.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2000/FOOD/news/03/28/madcow.eu.reut/index.html

 

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