World

Germany Agrees To Meat Recall

December 19, 2000 / 4:34 PM EST / AP

German producers agreed Friday to recall exported sausages and other foods made with meat possibly infected with mad cow disease, after a request by the European Union's head office.

EU Health and Consumer Affairs Commissioner David Byrne, who made the request, warned the EU Commission would take steps to force a recall if Germany did not act.

After discovering five cases of the brain-wasting disease in homegrown cattle in recent weeks, Germany on Wednesday announced a voluntary domestic recall on products that might contain bits of infected meat.

But Byrne said that was not enough.

"I welcome these precautionary measures but I insist that they must apply also to all meat products and meat preparations exported to all other member states and third countries," he said in a statement.

"My overriding concern is that consumers in other member states are afforded an equal level of protection as consumers in Germany," Byrne said.

The Commission, the EU's executive body, would introduce "safeguard measures" to force a recall if Germany and the food industry did not respond satisfactorily, he added.

A worldwide ban imposed by the Commission on British beef exports in 1996, after the mad-cow crisis first erupted there, was lifted just last year.

At a meeting called in Bonn to implement the recall in Germany, representatives of the German sausage industry declared their "full readiness" to recall suspect products also internationally, according to German Health Ministry spokeswoman Andrea Josefini.

There were no immediate details on how the recall would be carried out or who would monitor it.

Germany's health minister urged manufacturers to recall foods made before Oct. 1 with so-called mechanically retrieved meat, where shreds are stripped from cattle carcasses, including the spinal column. Germany stopped processors from using mechanically retrieved meat in October.

Scientists believe the spine can harbor the agent responsible for mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). A human form, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is thought to be spread by eating contaminated meat, has killed 81 people in Britain and two in France.

The World Health Organization said Friday that meat and animal feed infected with mad cow may have been sold across the globe, raising the possibility of outbreaks beyond Europe.

Maura Ricketts, a WHO specialist, said it was almost impossible to trace where suspect meat or feed has gone since the disease was identified in Britain in 1986 and that the incubation period for the human form is very long meaning cases may be hidden.

"We may have to sensitize countries to the fact that they are at risk," she said.

Byrne also confirmed that the EU veterinary office conducted inspections of cattle feed samples in September in parts of Germany, including Bavaria, where four of the five infected cows in Germany have been found. He said Berlihas been asked for an "urgent reply" to the findings, which would then be made public.

German media reported Thursday the EU investigators found lax inspections by local authorities and negligence in handling feed containing meat and bonemeal.