'Mad-Cow' Disease Cases Jump Despite EU Increased Testing

GEOFF WINESTOCK  / WALL STREET JOURNAL 8jan01

The stepped-up testing program for "mad-cow" disease that was launched by the European Union last week to calm consumers has so far only raised more fear and confusion -- especially in Germany and Spain, which have recorded sharp rises in cases.

Germany announced on Friday plans to broaden its testing program to cover younger animals, after a private testing company found a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, in a 28-month-old cow.

The EU testing program, which started Jan. 1, requires BSE testing for all animals older than 30 months, but the German Health Ministry now wants to lower the threshold to 24 months.

In both Spain and Germany, where the first cases of the disease were only detected in November, increased testing has seen a sharp jump in the number of cattle detected with the disease. After the first week of compulsory testing, Spain announced three new cases of BSE Friday, taking its total to five. Germany, which started its testing program a month early in an effort to calm consumer panic, has recorded seven cases, including the young cow last week.

So far, the testing measures haven't arrested the slide in beef sales, which has ranged from 20% to 50% in Spain, Italy, France and Germany. Beef sales for Christmas, although slightly higher than in previous weeks, were still way down compared with previous years, according to EU figures.

European Commission agricultural spokesman Gregor Kreuzhuber said he didn't expect an immediate recovery in the beef market. "It will likely take several weeks before consumers see that the measures are really working," he said.

BSE has been linked to a brain disease that has killed 80 people, almost all in Britain.

Across Europe, the 475 million euro ($455 million) testing program is causing backlogs and confusion at slaughterhouses, which lack the technical capacity to perform the tests. In France, health officials closed down an abattoir in Besancon on Friday after it was found to have breached safeguards on accurate labeling of the brain samples used for testing and botched procedures for excluding cattle from the food chain until test results are confirmed. In Italy, an association of agricultural producers, Confagricoltura, issued a warning that veterinary officials can't keep up with demand for tests.

Mr. Kreuzhuber said the EU had expected initial problems in the testing program, which was announced only a month ago. To tide farmers over until the program is in place, the EU has promised compensation for cattle that cannot be tested and must be destroyed. Most governments want to switch to testing as soon as possible because, even with this aid, it is still cheaper for them to carry out a test at a cost of about 15 euros than to destroy an animal. In Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark, governments have refused to destroy cattle, for ethical reasons.

The German proposal for testing all cattle from the age of 24 months would increase the burden of testing substantially and could split EU governments, which have struggled to develop a coordinated approach in fighting BSE. German Health Minister Andrea Fischer said Friday that Germany would proceed with the measure unilaterally, even if it isn't approved by the EU as a whole. Also, Germany's Agriculture Ministry announced its support for a database designed to track and identify meat products based on tissue samples taken from calves.

Lost Opportunities

How European countries ignored warning signs on BSE, or mad-cow disease

1996:
Link between BSE and human brain disease established in Britain

1997:
Prionics AG of Switzerland develops first efficient test kit

1998:
January: Switzerland starts widespread testing program; number of BSE cases there immediately doubles
April: EU countries agree to start random testing for BSE, but follow-up inspections by European Commission show major flaws in testing program

1999:
March: European Commission issues draft report warning that BSE has likely spread from Britain. Other EU countries attack report and delay publication.

2000:
February: Denmark discovers its first case of BSE, one month after starting a widespread testing program
June: France steps up testing; its number of BSE cases surges
August: European Commission finally publishes report on risk of spread of BSE
November: German private lab discovers country's first case of BSE; government orders widespread testing, and six more cases are quickly discovered
November: Spain discovers first cases of BSE
November: EU countries agree on a massive testing program of all sick and older animals

Mr. Kreuzhuber of the European Commission said, however, that testing animals under 30 months is unnecessary, because technology currently available isn't sensitive enough to detect the disease at an early stage and BSE is, in any case, extremely rare in young animals.

He added that the commission wouldn't oppose any measures confined to Germany, but said that country doesn't have the right to block imports of beef from other EU countries that fail to observe German standards.

The German plan is likely to come up at a meeting of EU veterinary officials in Brussels on Wednesday, which will try to harmonize differences in approach between member states.

France will be pressing Spain, Italy and Austria to lift bans on imports of French beef after a jump in the number of French cases of BSE. France, on the other hand, will have to justify a decision to go beyond an EU ban on all use of certain cow parts in human food.

The EU has banned use of brains and spinal tissue, because they pose a special risk of spreading BSE to humans, but France has its own ban on intestines as well, arguing that they also pose a risk.

--Handelsblatt contributed to this article.