EU To Ease "Mad Cow"
Ban On British Beef

BRUSSELS, Belgium —(AP)— The three-year ban on British beef exports introduced at the height of Europe's ``mad cow'' scare may be significantly eased in June following slaughterhouse inspections, a European Commission spokesman said last week.

``The best case scenario is that the ban is lifted sometime in June,'' said Gerry Kiely, agriculture spokesman at the European Union executive body.

The Commission imposed the worldwide export ban in 1996 after the British government acknowledged a possible link between a brain-destroying cattle ailment, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and an equally fatal human illness, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The EU agreed last November to allow Britain to resume selective exports pending slaughterhouse inspections. It will allow the export of British beef from animals born after August 1996 when Britain banned the use of ground animal remains in cattle feed.

BSE, commonly known as mad cow disease, is believed to have spread through feed containing the remains of animals suffering from related brain ailments.

Kiely said EU veterinary experts have been inspecting British slaughterhouses since last Monday for traces of BSE. The inspectors will have 25 days to complete their report.

Kiely said the EU Standing Veterinary Committee, made up of member country veterinary representatives, will then consult the report.

``If they're satisfied, then they can set a date,'' for the resumption of exports, said Kiely.

British beef industry representatives said in late February that few meat companies would be resuming beef exports immediately because they are more concerned with cementing gains in the domestic market.

In 1995 Britain exported some 270,000 tons of beef, worth around $1 billion. Although mad cow cases have been detected in other European countries, the overwhelming majority have been in Britain.