By PAUL AMES, Associated Press
BRUSSELS,
Belgium - The European Union moved closer Wednesday to banning
some of the most popular cuts of beef with a package of measures
to quell public fear over mad cow disease.
The European
Commission approved a ban on meat attached to the back bones of
cows that are more than a year old, which would rule out the sales
of T-bone steaks and cuts such as Italy's bisteca fiorentina and
Spain's chuleta de buey.
National veterinary
experts will discuss the proposals, already backed by agriculture
ministers from the 15 EU nations, later Wednesday. If approved,
the measures could become effective March 31.
"With
today's proposals, we add an additional layer of protection for
consumers," EU Health Commissioner David Byrne said.
The proposals
exempt countries where no cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy
have been discovered or that have clearly demonstrated effective
control measures.
"Sweden,
Finland and Austria may be exempted because they have not to date
registered any native cases of BSE and are considered to be countries
where BSE is unlikely," the EU executive said in a statement.
Britain is
also exempted as far as domestic consumption of beef on the bone
is concerned, although exports of British on-the-bone beef will
continue to be banned. Portugal is also exempt because of measures
its has taken to eradicate mad cow disease.
All exemptions
"will be conditional on continued and improved surveillance
for the presence of BSE," including the increased testing
of certain categories, the Commission said.
Mad cow disease
was first diagnosed in Britain, where 177,500 cows have been infected
since the outbreak was detected in the 1980s. Although the number
of reported cases is lower elsewhere in the EU, widened testing
in the past few weeks has turned up cases in Germany, Italy and
Spain as well.
Beef sales
have fallen 27 percent across the EU since October.
The brain-wasting
cattle disease has been linked with a fatal human equivalent,
new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which has killed some 80
Europeans since the mid-1990s, mostly in Britain.
Feeding cattle
the ground remains of other mammals was suspected of spreading
BSE before the practice was banned by the EU.
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