Mad Cow Scare Has Europeans
Eyeing Strict Rules On Feed

BRUSSELS, Belgium —(AP)— A crisis session of European Union farm ministers is being held this week to consider drastic new measures to combat the spreading "mad cow" disease and to stem damage to consumer confidence in beef.

The ministers Monday were to assess proposals to ban animal products in feed for cows, pigs and poultry for six months starting Jan. 1 and keep out of the food chain untested animals that are older than 2 ½ years — measures that would further sap already stretched farm budgets and raise huge practical problems.

The EU's Executive Commission proposed the measures last week as the only way out of a crisis over the brain-wasting disease and the spread of its equally lethal human form.

The crisis threatens to eclipse the agenda of the three-day summit of EU government leaders starting Thursday, which should center on enlargement of the 15-member union and institutional reforms.

``The majority of member states are in favor of the broad thrust of the commission's proposals, although there may be some discussions around the proposals,'' British Agriculture Secretary Nick Brown told the British Broadcasting Corp. on Sunday.

``If it is a choice between going further than scientific advice or not doing anything at all, we will be arguing for going further,'' he said.

The mad cow crisis reappeared two months ago after an increase in French cases and reports that tainted beef might have made it to supermarket shelves. Last week, the first cases in Germany and Spain were recorded, and over the weekend Spanish authorities said the disease may be more widespread than initially thought.

With EU governments trying to figure out how to pay the bill for easing the crisis, Germany's finance minister ruled out any major aid to farmers to help them cope. He said consumers would have to face higher beef prices.

``If we want to have safely produced food, consumers have to be ready to pay for it,'' Hans Eichel said in an interview in Berlin's Tagesspiegel daily. ``The state cannot subsidize that.''

The cattle disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, is thought to spread to humans in the form of the brain-wasting variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Two people in France and 80 in Britain have died from the disease; 89 people across the EU have been infected.

The farm ministers will also seek coordinated measures against BSE, after unilateral actions by several EU nations against France strained relations.

When the disease first ravaged herds in Britain in 1996, several EU nations took action against Britain before a joint plan and a ban on British beef exports were approved. France still has a unilateral ban on British beef.

A call to ban all livestock feed containing meat and bone failed to find the necessary majority at the last EU farm meeting. Around $1.3 billion worth of feed is produced in EU countries every year, and destroying it would cost about double that amount. Finding replacement feed would add another $595 million to the bill, EU officials said.

The mad cow crisis gripping Europe has so far spared the United States, and experts say there is no reason for Americans to worry about their meat.

The risk of mad cow disease in the United States is ``extremely low'' because of bans on imported cattle and a restriction on cattle feed, according to a recent report by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, a nonprofit organization of scientific societies.

About 12,000 U.S. cattle have been tested for the disease over the past 10 years, including about 2300 in the past year. None has tested positive.

But scientists say better methods for testing cattle are needed and there remain many questions about the disease's origin, cause and transmission. Current tests are considered too slow and they can only be done on dead cattle.

The government also is concerned about halting the spread of related diseases that do affect animals in this country, including sheep, deer and elk. Those disease are not believed to pose a threat to humans.

``There's every reason for the government to be concerned,'' said William Hueston, a University of Maryland scientist. ``The tendency is that if we're successful in preventing disease it becomes less and less important and people become complacent.

``As has been demonstrated in Europe, the last thing we need is complacency.''

The Food and Drug Administration lists mad cow and related diseases among its top research priorities for food safety.

``We still don't know what's behind this disease,'' said Bernard Schwetz, the FDA's acting deputy commissioner.

Cases of mad cow disease are turning up across Europe this fall following the discovery of infected cows in France and one recorded case of its human form. Since then, scientists have found the first cattle with the disease in Germany and Spain.

The disease was first diagnosed 14 years ago in Britain, where there have been close to 180,000 cases. In Britain, the number of cases fell dramatically after herds were slaughtered and tests were made mandatory.

Mad cow, which leaves holes in the brains of infected animals, is believed to be transmitted when cattle eat feed containing tissues from infected animals. It is also thought to cause a form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a fatal brain-destroying ailment, in humans who ate meat from infected animals.

(Actually, the disease-causing organism has never been found in meat, just in brain, spinal cord and other non-meat tissues; this is the sort of faulty information that leads to foolishness like the Oprah fiasco. — Ed.)

The only way to test for the disease in cattle is to slaughter the animals and look at the brain tissue.

The Agriculture Department halted the import of British cattle in 1989 and in 1997 extended the ban to a number of other European countries, including Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden.

Also in 1997, FDA banned the feeding of animal proteins, such as meat and bone meal, to cattle and sheep.

Some 496 cattle that were imported from Britain and Ireland in the 1980s were traced and all but 32 were found. Four are still alive: rare Scottish beef cattle living under federal quarantine on a farm in Vermont.

An Agriculture Department veterinarian inspects the cattle every few months to make sure they are healthy. The brains of the cattle will be tested after they die, but none of the cattle has shown any signs of mad cow.

Thirty-five other cattle imported from Europe before the 1997 ban are under quarantine in four other states: Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and Texas.

Scrapie, the version of mad cow that strikes sheep, is believed by some scientists to have caused the outbreak in cattle in Britain.

The Agriculture Department is now battling in court to destroy 355 sheep in Vermont that may carry the disease, and the department has proposed restricting interstate movement of sheep and goats.

Also of concern is chronic wasting disease, which is found in deer and elk populations in 10 counties of north central Colorado and southeastern Wyoming. Although scientists do not believe the disease can harm people, hunters are advised not to eat deer or elk that appear to be ill.