World

Reining In Mad Cow Disease

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

November 17, 2000 / 8:04 AM EST / CBS

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed a series of measures - including a temporary European Union-wide ban on all animal products in fodder and mandatory animal testing - to eradicate mad cow disease and restore consumer confidence in European beef.

The EU executive panel proposed a blanket ban on meat and bone meal in fodder for cows, pigs and poultry for six months starting Jan. 1.

Agriculture ministers from the 15-nation bloc are to debate the proposal next Monday along with other recommendations to curb mad cow disease from spreading to humans.

The proposals follow the discovery of mad cow disease in France along with a recorded case there of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, the human version of the debilitating brain ailment.

Scientists have also reported the first cases of mad cow disease in Germany and Spain, while several countries have imposed bans on French beef imports.

"We should adopt an overall approach to address the risks so consumers can see what is done to protect their health," EU Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne told a press conference.

The Beef With Beef

Click here to read more about the history of the mad cow disease scare, from the first diagnosis in 1986 in Britain to this year's growing concerns and countermeasures.

He said mad cow disease knows no borders and was moving from one country to the other.

EU Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler, speaking at the same press conference, said the new measures were "necessary against the backdrop of insecurity that has arisen."

Fischler said the European Union currently produces some 3 million tons of meat and bone meal per year, of which 2.5 million tons are used for animal feed.

He said if a ban on meat and bone meal in fodder is adopted, it would cost euro 3 billion (dlrs 2.6 million) to destroy this quantity through incineration.

The impact of the crisis has hit sales of beef products hard.

In France alone, where 90 BSE cases have been reported this year, sales are down 40 percent. Beef prices across the European Union have slumped 5.9 percent because of a drop in demand.

"We have seen that the collapse of the beef market is actually a lot bigger than the crisis of 1996," said Fischler of expensive and painful measures to stop mad cow disease in Britain.

To get a grip on the curren crisis the European Commission proposed, in addition to a ban on meat and bone meal in fodder:

that all cattle of over 30 months be tested for mad cow disease "to enhance consumer confidence." It suggested that the European Union would pay half of the cost of the tests and 70 percent of destroying infected animals.
a "purchase for destruction" program to remove from the food chain all cattle over 30 months unless they have been tested for BSE to offer consumers additional health guarantees and prevent a wholesale collapse of beef prices.
widening the current list of "specified risk materials," - animal parts such as brains and nerve tissues that are key to the spread of mad cow disease - to include the intestine of beef of all ages.

Mad cow disease - formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE - was first diagnosed in 1986 in Britain where it reached epidemic proportions.

There have been close to 180,000 cases in Britain and 1,300 elsewhere in the European Union. In Britain, it has fallen dramatically because of draconian measures, including wholesale herd slaughtering, mandatory testing and an EU ban on British beef exports that has since been lifted.

Italian Farm Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio Wednesday praised the new European Commission proposals, saying he is "determined to fight the battle" for their approval.

Spain isn't waiting for the EU act and Wednesday imposed its own ban on animal feed containing meat or bone meal.

Croatia and Egypt also took action Wednesday. Croatia added Germany, Spain and the Netherlands to the list of nations from which it will no longer import beef: Britain, Ireland, Portugal, France, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Egypt banned imports of beef from Ireland and livestock from Germany.

BSE is believed to cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans - an ailment that, like in cows, eats away brain tissue. There are currently 89 confirmed cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the European Union, mostly in young people.