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About 100 infected French cattle slaughtered for food

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December 14, 2000 

DENVER-- (UNB/AP) - About 100 French cattle slaughtered for human consumption this year were infected with the bovine plague known as mad cow disease, a British public health researcher says.

In a report published in the prestigious journal Nature, Imperial College of London statistician Christl Donnelly said at least 1,200 French cattle have been infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, since 1987. She said the number could be as high as 7,300 if French meat producers and officials have underreported the results of inspections.

However, meat from all the animals may not have reached French markets and restaurants, Donnelly says. Nor was it determined how much of the infected meat was eaten.

If French reporting was complete and accurate, Donnelly calculated, the number of infected cattle reaching food markets this year could be as low as 49. But if previous experience in Britain and other countries is any guide, underreporting is common in the early years of an epidemic, she said.

Donnelly's estimates are the latest attempt to quantify the scope of the recent mad cow scare in France, in which two people have died. She used data from the French Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries combined with data from the mad cow disease epidemic in Great Britain.

The brain-wasting mad cow disease originated in Britain in the late 1970s. Scientists believe it was spread by recycling meat and bone meal from infected animals back into cattle feed.

The disease wasn't identified until 1986, but by the mid-1990s, Britain was seeing tens of thousands of cases a year. Then, in 1996, a link was established between the disease and a new and similar human illness called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The human variant leaves holes in the brain, leading to dementia and death. It is thought to be caused by eating BSE-contaminated beef, although a victim might go 10 years before developing symptoms. So far, 81 people have died in Britain.

In moves to stop the disease's spread, Great Britain has discouraged the slaughter of cattle older than 30 months because older animals are more likely to be infected. And since 1988, it has imposed a ban on using certain parts of the cow in feed.

Now, though, the mad cow crisis is intensifying across Europe: In October, France declared that beef from 11 potentially infected cattle had reached markets, and in late November, Germany and Spain reported their first cases of BSE. On Dec. 4, the European Union ordered a six-month ban on almost all animal products in fodder, a move that is expected to cost dlrs 1.3 billion.

The figures in Donnelly's analysis suggest that the contamination may now be greater on the continent than it is in Britain.

"The relative potential risks posed by the consumption of British and French beef warrant reexamination," Donnelly said.

Donnelly's analysis reveals that the risk of infection of French meat fell sharply from 1988 to 1991; it then gradually rose to 1996.

Since 1996, France has required that animal feed be made from BSE-free slaughterhouse wastes. Donnelly said it is too soon to conclude whether the French ban has reduced the spread of BSE there.

Neither BSE nor Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has been detected in the United States. The United States has banned British beef imports since 1997, and unlike European herds, U.S. cattle are fed mostly corn and other grains. However, a disease similar to BSE has appeared in deer and elk herds in western U.S. states.