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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