Associated Press | By RAF CASERT | November 13, 2000
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- Fearing a further spread of the mad cow scare, the European Commission on Monday called for a huge increase of tests on the cattle herd of the 15 European Union nations in an attempt to assuage shaken consumer confidence.
"We must make known the risks," said EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne after he called for mad cow tests on all older cattle in the EU.
"There must be no hidden agendas. No distortions. No false assurances," he said in a statement.
The EU already has a plan in place to extend annual testing to some 170,000 animals next year and Byrne's latest proposal could further add "million of tests," said his spokeswoman Beate Gminder.
EU veterinary experts will discuss the proposal on Wednesday and farm ministers will look further at the proposal during a regular monthly meeting next week.
Under the new plan, tests would not only center on high-risk animals but also include a comprehensive program to test all older animals in the EU's cattle herd of 40 million.
"The envisaged program will ... increase information and transparency to the consumer and further strengthen our controls," Byrne said.
Gminder said she hoped the EU nations could take a decision in a matter of weeks.
The huge extension of the tests would start to weigh on budgets. One BSE testing kit costs 30 euros (dlrs 26), excluding the cost of veterinarians and laboratory personnel. "It's a substantial amount of money," said Gminder.
Under current procedures the costs of tests are shared equally between the EU's central budget and national governments.
Officials said the main negotiating problems would center on the cutoff age for mandatory testing of older animals and the funding. Some nations where the disease has not been diagnosed might also object.
Mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE,had so far spared herds in Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Greece, Finland and Austria.
Cases of the disease have risen sharply in France this year, up to 90 so far from 31 for the whole of last year. The disease had been centered in Britain where around 180,000 cases have been detected in an outbreak that first came to public attention in the late 1980s.
In Paris, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin is considering measures banning the use of livestock feed containing meat or bone meal amid growing concern about mad cow disease's spread.
The prime minister is expected to announce the decision on Tuesday after meeting with several Cabinet members.
Intent on mitigating a new wave of mad cow panic, Jospin has said in the past that he favored waiting for the results of a government-ordered study before banning animal-based feed, which is feared to transmit mad cow disease.
But Jospin has apparently decided to follow President Jacques Chirac's wish that such feed be outlawed immediately, without waiting for the study results that are expected in three months.
Fear in France increased after it became clear a few weeks ago that some potentially tainted meat could have ended up on the supermarket shelves.
Last Friday, France announced plans to ban sweetbreads for a one-year period as a precautionary measure to fight the possible lethal consequences for humans.
On Friday already, Byrne called on member states to carry out many more tests than legally required.
Only eight cases of BSE had been diagnosed on animals born after more rigorous feeding measures were adopted in 1996, including two in France.
The brain-wasting malady in cattle has been linked to a variant strand of the fatal human disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob.
At the height of the Britain outbreak in 1996, the EU banned all British beef exports. It lifted the prohibition in August 1999 as a result of the safety measures and evidence that BSE was on its way out in Britain.Associated Press:
