Sunday December 31 10:10 PM ET
EU: Germany Was Warned About Mad Cow
BERLIN (AP) - The European Union (news - web sites) renewed its attack
on German handling of the mad cow crisis Sunday, with a top official
saying the union warned Germany nine months ago that its cattle were
probably infected, a newspaper reported.
David Byrne, the group's health and consumer affairs commissioner, told
Welt am Sonntag that the European Union sent German Agriculture
Minister Karl-Heinz Funke a study in March predicting that German cows
were carrying the disease.
Byrne said he was puzzled when Funke continued insisting that German
beef was safe, the newspaper said.
Funke and German Health Minister Andrea Fischer have come under fire
from the European Union, consumer groups and opposition conservatives,
who accuse them of acting too late to protect the public.
Seven cows have been found carrying the disease, which is formally
known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Scientists suspect more than
80 people who have died from a similar brain-wasting condition, most of
them in Britain, may have eaten infected beef.
Funke said Saturday he had based his assurances that beef was safe on
reports from an international agency for animal diseases in Paris. He
also said that Germany's 16 states last year refused federal appeals to
step up testing.
He said he had made a mistake by not pushing earlier for an EU-wide ban
on feeding animals with meal containing ground meat and bone. Feed made
from infected carcasses is suspected of spreading the disease across
much of Europe.
European Union leaders agreed earlier this month to ban its use for at
least six months starting in January, though many countries have
already stopped the practice.
In the Sunday newspaper, Byrne forecast that mad cow disease could be
eradicated in the European Union within 10 years if all 15 countries
impose tough safety standards.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder used his New Year's address to
appoint a senior official, Hedda von Wedel, to identify policy mistakes
and draw up a plan to combat the disease.
Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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