France Tosses The T-Bone

Amid spiraling fears about mad cow disease, France's government on Tuesday announced it was banning the T-bone steak, the second specialty to be slashed from the nation's menus in a week.

Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said at a news conference that the government was also implementing a temporary ban on all livestock feed containing meat, another precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the disease.

Until Tuesday, Britain was the only European Union country to have completely banned such animal feed, which is blamed for the emergence and spread of the fatal, brain-wasting illness known in scientific circles as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Fears about the animal ailment and its health risks to humans have surged recently in France since an announcement that potentially infected meat had made it to shelves at three supermarkets before being hastily withdrawn.

In the aftermath of that announcement, many French school districts banned beef in their cafeterias, and more people have increased chicken and fish in their diet.

On Friday, France said it was banning sweetbreads, a delicacy made from a cow's thymus gland.

Jospin said the T-bone, a cut of meat that harbors potential risks because it is so near the bone, would be banned immediately. Other new measures included the banning of cow vertebrae and a review of slaughterhouse practices to reduce any chance of banned animal parts creeping into meat.

Jospin said the temporary ban on the use of animal-based feeds for all livestock — including fish, chicken and pork — would take effect Wednesday.

A decision on a full ban would be made once the French agency for food safety, known as AFSSA, assesses possible risks associated with such feeds. That could take three to four months.

France banned the use of animal-based feed for cows in 1990 and other ruminants six years later. Since then, only chicken, pork and farm-raised fish were allowed to be brought up on animal-based feeds.

But most new French cases of BSE are believed to be the result of cattle eating supplies of similar protein-rich meals that were intended for other livestock.

With the new measure, the government is seeking to eliminate cross-contamination of feeds for cows from feeds once authorized for chickens, pork and farm-raised fish.

The government's move means that 870,000 tons of feed must be stocked and incinerated. It also means that France must increase imports of soy to replace the protein-rich product being banned.

The prime minister also announced that funds to study the infectious agent at the source of mad cow disease would be tripled in 2001 to 210 million francs (about $30 million).

The number of cows found suffering from mad cow disease has jumped to more than 90 this year compared to 31 for the whole of last year, as more aggressive and systematic testing of French herds is carried out.

The brain-wasting ailment is suspected by scientists to be linked to a similar human malady, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Two deaths from the disease are known in France, compared to more than 80 in Britain, where mad cow disease exploded in 1996.

As Jospin made his announcement, he denied that the public is in danger.

"There is at present no scientific proof that suggests that eating beef or drinking milk poses a risk to health," Jospin told a news conference.

However, the "Mad Cow" fears showed signs of spreading across Europe.

French Farm Minister Jean Glavany said the EU should follow Paris and London and slap a blanket ban on the suspect feeds.

Italy's agriculture minister threatened Tuesday to halt most beef imports from France if the European Union failed to block the exports. Some Italian cities, too, began taking beef off school menus as a precaution.

An official from Bulgaria's national veterinary service said Bulgaria would probably soon ban imports of beef from France except for some cuts from younger cattle.

The Spanish farm ministry said that, despite the new measures unveiled in France, there was no question of lifting the ban on French and Irish cattle that it announced last week.

But a spokesman for the German Agriculture Ministry said his country was planning no measures against France at the moment.