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THE BridgeNews FORUM: On farming, farm policy
and related agricultural issues.
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* As French Cases Of Mad Cow Disease Cause Increasing Concern,
German Regions Can Be Expected To Seek Their Own Import Ban
By David Walker, agricultural economist
Bridge News
NORWICH, England--Germany's decision last week to lift the ban on imports
of British beef is of limited significance to Britain because Germany is a
very small market for British beef. But the decision clears the way for
Germany to build a defense against imports of beef from France, where there
has been an increase in reports of mad cow disease.
The German decision was, in effect, made by the German regional
governments, the Laender, which under the German constitution have
responsibility for food safety.
Although the German federal government, as a member of the European
Union, has long recognized its legal commitments to lift the ban, the
Laenders are not so bound. More critical to them is the political reality
that the German population still believes there is a food safety issue. A
very recent survey has indicated that three out of four Germans believed the
lifting of the ban would be wrong.
The ban on British beef exports was originally imposed by the European
Union in March 1996, when concern was raised over a possible link between mad
cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE), which was prevalent
at the time in British cattle, and a rare but fatal human form called new
variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.
Last summer the European Commission formally recognized the British BSE
epidemic was under control and that programs for keeping beef from BSE
animals out of the food chain were effective. The ban was lifted on Aug. 1,
but France and Germany refused to comply.
The recent decision of the Laenders' representatives in the Bundesrat,
the second chamber in the German parliament, to vote for a lifting of the ban
may indicate their concern over the French BSE situation rather than the
influence of the federal government.
In contrast to Britain, France appears not to have developed systems for
preventing the spread of BSE or effectively excluding meat from affected
animals from the food chain. Reported cases of BSE in France are only a
fraction of those that were reported in Britain at the height of the
epidemic, but they are on the rise. After allowing for differences in
reporting methods, French BSE cases will soon exceed those being reported in
Britain, where cases are still being found among older animals not intended
for slaughter.
Of greater concern, however, is the conclusion of a June 1999 EU
veterinary mission to France that ''underreporting [of BSE in France] cannot
be excluded.''
The major challenge for the French is that they have adopted a whole-herd
slaughter policy. If one animal is confirmed to have BSE, the whole herd is
slaughtered. While this dramatic measure may inspire public confidence, it
has little scientific basis because BSE is spread through the feeding of
recycled meat and bone meal (especially to calves) and not directly from one
animal to another. More importantly, slaughter of entire herds encourages
underreporting.
The kind of dilemma faced by a French cattleman who suspects he has an
animal with BSE was well portrayed in the award-winning 1963 western ''Hud.''
In the movie, foot-and-mouth disease was imported from Mexico into a Texas
herd. The herd was summarily driven into a pit and shot. Hud, the dissolute
son played by Paul Newman, fired the first shot.
Unlike foot-and-mouth disease, BSE is spread through feed, but the
temptation for the French cattleman is to dispose quietly of any suspect
animal and siblings in the same way. Faced with this, Hud probably would have
shot the offending animals in some remote ravine, expecting coyotes to
destroy the evidence before any government inspector came across it.
An EU veterinary mission to France in June noted that suspected BSE cases
were reported by French farmers ''with a certain hesitation and a
considerable delay in some cases.'' Without convenient ravines or the
services of coyotes, the quickest and easiest way of disposing of suspect
cattle in France is through conventional market channels and, thus, into the
human food chain. Indeed, the EU mission report found that veterinarians in
French slaughterhouses were not well trained in detecting BSE -- a finding
the makes it likely that BSE-infected cattle have made their way to butchers.
The EU mission further reported that about 6 percent of cattle feed
analyzed in France over the previous two years was contaminated with meat and
bone meal. Nor is there any mystery about how BSE may have found its way to
France. British meat and bone meal was imported into France for a while and
presumably fed to French cattle even after the use of such feed had been
banned in Britain almost 12 years ago.
The French announced in February, soon after the publication of the EU's
veterinary mission report, that it would start screening for BSE in late
March. The French agriculture minister further indicated that, as in
Switzerland, which is not an EU member, this testing might exposed a higher
level of BSE than reported through slaughter policy.
More recently France has been reported to have scaled back its testing
plans, limiting tests to those animals that have been identified as BSE
suspects as a result of observation. But there have also been
reports that the EU veterinary committee, which last summer implicitly
recommended against using such tests until they were more reliable, may be
revisiting that decision. The importance of identifying underreporting may
now be viewed as being more important, particularly in France, where cases
are on the increase and underreporting has been identified by the EU
veterinary committee as a concern.
If these tests show a higher incidence of BSE in France than previously
reported, red lights will begin to flash in the German Laender. In seeking
action, the Laender will be bolstered in the knowledge they were no longer
crying wolf over British beef.
For an indication of when red lights may begin to flash in both Berlin
and Brussels over BSE in French cattle, look to Portugal. The EU banned
cattle and beef exports from Portugal in November 1998, after about 150
Portuguese BSE cases had been reported. France has reported about 90, with
nine in the last 10 weeks. Of course, more than absolute numbers will be
taken into account. In Portugal, with fewer cattle, smaller numbers were more
critical. France, however, shares a border with some of the German Laender.
Certainly, if French test results were to confirm underreporting of BSE
in the country's cattle, a swift response from the EU and its member states
can be anticipated. The French, having defied the EU with its continued ban
on British beef imports and having reacted to the European Commission's
resulting legal action with their own counter-suit, can have few allies in
Brussels on this issue. End
DAVID WALKER, an agricultural economist, lives on his family's farm
outside Norwich, England. He recently served as senior economist in London
for the Home-Grown Cereals Authority and previously was executive director of
the Alberta Grain Commission in Canada. His views are not necessarily those
of Bridge News, whose ventures include the Internet site http://www.bridge.com/.
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EDITORS: A color photo of the author is available from KRT Photo Service.
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