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Denmark Bans Beef On Bone As Mad Cow Disease Case Reported COPENHAGEN (AFP) - Denmark banned the sale of beef on the bone Monday following a new case of "mad cow disease." Lithuania, across the Baltic Sea from Denmark, banned imports of Danish cattle, beef and by-products immediately the news became known. The ban will remain until Lithuania's veterinary agency is satisfied no tainted products are on the market, its director, Kazimieras Lukauskas, told the ELTA news agency. In Copehagen, Danish Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Ritt Bjerregaard announced the beef-on-the-bone ban at a press conference, saying that the security of consumers is her first priority. "We need to act resolutely because we are in a very serious situation," she said. "This case is the first among Danish cows, the second since this disease erupted in Britain" the minister said. A 1992 case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) involved a Scottish cow imported from Britain. The newly infected animal, a three year-old in a herd of 73 in the north of the Jutland peninsula, was slaughtered and the herd placed in quarantine. The entire herd is to be slaughtered. The owner noticed the animal acting strangely as it went for slaughter. An analysis at the abbattoir raised the suspicions of the veterinarian, who sent a sample of the beast's brain tissue to a British laboratory. "The diagnosis, received Sunday evening, was unfortunately that it was mad cow disease," said Bjerregaard, who has informed the European Commission and ordered the implementation of EU measures in such incidents. "One case is one case too much. We are taking this case very seriously and will follow it closely," the minister said. Wholesalers and retailers have been ordered to withdraw from sale all beef cuts such as T-bone, rib steak, any beef located next to the spinal cord as well as products manufactured from brains, eyes and tongues. Bjerregaard also asked consumers to "throw away meat already bought so as to eliminate all risk, however small." In a bid to reassure export markets, new working methods for abbattoirs have also been introduced to exclude the spinal cord, eyes, brains, parts of the intestines and the spleen. "We are not destroying this important sector, cattle farming, with these measures. We believe that by reacting quickly, we will contribute to reassuring markets abroad," Bjerregaard said. "It is very surprising," said the head of the country's cattle producers association, Lennart Korsgaard Nielsen, in reaction to news of the BSE incident. "We do not understand how this disease could have emerged in Denmark after we took all the necessary precautions to avoid it," he said. Danish authorities banned the importation or use of animal-based feed for cows in the early 1990s in a bid to stop the transfer of BSE. In 1997, Denmark unsuccessfully asked the European Union to be given a special status as being free from BSE because no animal born in the country had ever been infected. Denmark has 1,976,000 head of cattle, of which 700,000 are cows, and has exported 11,000 for breeding purposes as well as 57,000 sucking calves to the Netherlands, the cattle producers association said. About 88,500 tons of beef, fresh and frozen, were exported during the first 11 months of 1999, chiefly to Italy, Spain and Russia. Meanwhile in France, the eighth case of BSE this year
was detected in the western region of Brittany, the French agriculture
ministry announced Monday, adding that the infected animal and its herd
were slaughtered. Last year in France 31 cases of BSE were detected.
Britain had 1,869 cases of BSE in the same year and expects up to 1,200
cases this
year.
Newswires |
