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By Stephen Castle and Marie Woolf, Independent News
UK
Europe
took a drastic new step to end the consumer panic over the
spread of mad cow disease yesterday, by proposing a destruction
programme for up to two million cattle and a ban on all
bone and animal feed.
The
draconian measures follow the widespread consumer panic
that has spread from France to Spain and Germany, which
confirmed its first cases of BSE last week. They mark a
substantial extension of European Union measures to try
to eliminate the still spreadingepidemic.
"BSE
is an EU-wide problem which requires EU-wide answers. Firm
action is required. We have to restore consumer confidence,"
said the European agriculture commissioner, Franz Fischler.
David
Byrne, the European commissioner for health and consumer
protection, warned that BSE threatened every EU country
and that the disease "does not know borders".
Yesterday's
EU measures, which are expected to be approved by agriculture
ministers when they meet on Monday in Brussels, means that
all meat from cattle over 30 months will be removed from
the food chain unless they have been tested BSE free.
Britain
wants even tougher standards because BSE tests only pick
up the disease in its later stages. In Parliament yesterday,
the head of the Food Standards Agency warned that French
controls may not be sufficient to prevent BSE-infected beef
reaching Britain. Sir John Krebs told MPs that there was
a risk that BSE-infected beef, particularly in processed
foods, such as salami, could be reaching the UK.
He said
that he did not believe that France's controls were "100
per cent watertight". There was likely to have been
"under reporting" of BSE cases in France early
on and that protection of British consumers depended on
"an element of trust" of France's authorities,
Sir John said.
The
new EU measures are expected to come into effect on 1 January.
From that point older cattle will either have to be tested,
after being slaughtered, or disposed of under the new scheme.
Meanwhile,
meat and bone-based animal feed, blamed for spreading the
disease, will be banned for use with all animals. A number
of countries, including Germany, resisted this until last
week because there is no evidence that it is harmful to
poultry or pigs. However, most governments now concede that
it has been impossible to stop farmers ignoring the ban.
The
FSA will review its advice on the safety of French beef
after next week's five-day inspection visit by EU veterinary
and scientific experts.
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