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EU seeks ban on meat and bone meal in animal fodder

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November 30, 2000 

BRUSSELS-- (AP) - The European Commission on Wednesday proposed a series of measures - including a temporary EU-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.

The EU agriculture ministers are to debate the proposal next Monday along with other steps put forward to curb mad cow disease from spreading to humans.

The proposals follow the discovery of the disease in France and a recorded case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, the human version of the debilitating brain ailment.

Several EU nations have banned French beef imports and scientists have reported the first cases of mad cow disease in Germany which until recently thought itself free of the illness.

"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.

EU Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler said that despite enormous progress in fighting mad cow disease in recent years, the illness was still around.

"Mad cow disease knows no borders but is moving from one member state to another," he said at the news conference.

The European Commission also proposed:

-that all cattle of over 30 months be tested for mad cow disease "to enhance consumer confidence."

-a "purchase for destruction" program to remove from the food chain all cattle over 30 months unless they have been tested for BSE. The aim would be to offer consumers additional health guarantees and prevent a wholesale collapse of beef prices.

-widening the current list of "specified risk materials," - animals parts such as brains and nerve tissues that are key to the spread of mad cow disease - to include all the intestine of beef of all ages.

To soften the blow to farmers of the measures, the Commission also proposed raising advances paid for the beef premiums.

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 EU. 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.

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 EU, mostly in young people.