E.U. slaps ban on bone meal

By Batuk Gathani

BRUSSELS, DEC. 5. The European Union today ordered a six-month ban on all animal feed products made from the meat and bone of cattle. The decision came after a 14-hour meeting of the Agriculture Ministers of the E.U. member states.

Bone meal is widely suspected to be the main cause of the ``mad cow disease'' or BSE and now suspected to be the ``brain-wasting calamity'' in humans who eat contaminated beef. The Ministers also banned the use of cattle gelatin in pharmaceuticals where it is used in manufacturing capsules.

The E.U.'s Commissioner (Minister) for Agriculture, Mr. Franz Fischler, proposed that the E.U. should buy cattle that have not been treated for BSE and destroy them. Mr. Fischler argued that this would be cheaper and less disruptive to the market than storing suspected meat. The E.U. may pay 70 per cent of the cost of ``untested cattle'' and the national Governments would pay the rest in addition to the storage and destruction costs.

The current European initiative to contain ``mad cow disease'' has acquired much urgency after discovering cases of BSE in Germany and Spain after similar panic in Britain and France.

The beef prices in E.U. countries have dropped by 17 per cent and many Europeans have stopped eating beef. Not that the average European is becoming vegetarian but increasing number of middle aged citizens are avoiding ``red meat'' as a precaution against heart disease and other ailments. For many women, it is fashionable to be vegetarian.

The revelations about the presence of the mad cow disease and its effect on humans have obviously triggered panic. Estimates of how many cattle will have to be destroyed vary but the current view is that about two million cattle would have to be destroyed. Each lot of one lakh cattle would cost the E.U. about euro 140 millions in paying compensation to farmers. The E.U.'s current population of cattle is around eight million.

This is seen as the E.U.'s emergency effort to allay consumers' fears about the latest outbreak of the disease and hence the E.U. Agriculture Ministers have agreed to a six-month ban on the use of bone meal.

How the potentially toxic animal feed of meat and bones will have to be destroyed has not been decided. It may be used as fuel in cement factories. Although for some days now, E.U. officials have been engaged in discussions to find a ``co- ordinated pan- European'' strategy to contain the ravages of the disease both in humans and animals, a consensus has not emerged. The BSE-free countries are Finland, Sweden and Austria which are not willing to pay for the cost of implementing the ban on the use of animal- product feed. Hence, this is rated as a temporary or emergency agreement but the E.U. member countries remain divided over other options too.

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Section  : International
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