Scientists add to doubts on lamb
British Butchers Launch Petition Drive Against Beef Ban
Farmers in uproar over lamb-on-bone ban threat
E.U. Scientific Panel Recommends Banning Some Sheep Parts
EU fails at latest mad cow control effort
Cunningham rejects EU call for lamb on bone ban
Commission takes wait-and-see approach to surprise UK beef ban
Iranian ban on Irish beef imports: concern of Dublin's relations with Tehran
Beef on the bone Q & A
Swiss chewing over own ban on beef on the bone
Food industry backlash over 'lunatic' measures
PA News Wed, Dec 10, 1997UK scientists will add to doubts about the safety of eating lamb tonight, just a day after European Union experts suggested a ban on meat on the bone >from British lamb over six months old. In a programme for Channel 4's Dispatches, some members of the UK's scientific advisory body on BSE will warn that it is likely the disease has been transmitted to sheep and "possible" that the disease is endemic among the national flock, even though it has not yet been detected.
Professor John Collinge told the programme:
"Given the amount of contaminated feed that was fed to sheep and given that we know that sheep are quite susceptible to BSE by the oral route, it will be surprising to me if some cases haven't happened." He added: "It's certainly a possibility that BSE could be endemic in sheep. It certainly is a worry."The programme also quotes Professor Colin Blakemore, professor of physiology at Oxford University, who urges children who have never eaten beef or lamb to "develop a taste for chicken".
Their comments come a day after a European Union scientific committee dealt a new blow to the meat industry across Europe, recommending a ban on sales of lamb on the bone from animals over 12 months old. The scientists also suggested even tighter controls in high BSE-risk countries such as the UK with an age limit of six months on sales of lamb on the bone from animals slaughtered in Britain.
Farmers warned that the extra controls had "massive implications" for the industry in the UK. Nearly 80% of lamb slaughtered in the UK is under 12 months old - and up to 90% of it is currently sold on the bone.
The latest threat to the British meat industry, already in uproar over last week's announced ban on sales of beef-on-the-bone by the UK government, emerged in a footnote to advice given to the European Commission by a panel of scientists.
For consumers, it could mean the end of traditional dishes such as lamb chops, rack of lamb and leg joints - on top of the end of T-bone steaks and roast rib of beef.
The main recommendation of the EU Scientific Steering Committee was to extend controls on banned beef offal to the lungs, vertebral column and "dorsal root ganglia" of all sheep and goats older than 12 months across the EU. But commission officials pointed out that the age limit would be redoubled in areas already facing a serious risk of BSE.
The committee's footnote states that "in countries specified at high risk it may be considered appropriate to further reduce the age limit of these tissues from 12 to six months".
In their submission to UK ministers, prompting the announcement of a ban on bone-in beef last week, British scientists from SEAC said they did not think it needed to be extended to sheep and goats. Their advice said: "As yet we have not found any evidence of BSE in UK sheep or goats, but the surveillance is at a very early stage." But the comments of some SEAC members on tonight's programme suggest that some at least still fear that surveillance will eventually provide evidence of the disease spreading from cows to other livestock.
Farmers condemned the European committee's proposals as a "sick joke". They said the bulk of UK lamb sales covered animals aged six to 12 months - with only a tiny market for "new season" under-six-month old animals. And unlike beef, where only 5% of cuts are sold on the bone, up to 90% of British lamb is sold still on the bone.
National Farmers Union president Sir David Naish warned if the proposal received the backing of the EU, it would be a "serious body blow" to an industry already reeling from a series of disasters.
Agriculture Minister Jack Cunningham ruled out any hasty response to the committee's recommendations. He said last night he was sticking with advice given by SEAC last week that no further controls were needed on sheep and goat meat.
Ulster politicians met the Prime Minister last night to plead for help for the Province's farmers -- who they warned could soon take to the streets of Northern Ireland to voice their protest. Democratic Unionist Party leader Dr Ian Paisley, who was among the MPs and Euro-MPs meeting Mr Blair at the Commons, said the delegation had voiced forcibly
"the tragedy of the situation, not only in respect of beef". "We told Mr Blair we feared farmers would be on the streets of Northern Ireland. I have never in all my political life seen the industry in such a state," he said.
Dow Jones Wed, Dec 10, 1997BRUSSELS --European Union scientific experts recommended Wednesday that intestines from cattle, sheep and goats should be added to the list of products to be banned in the E.U. as potentially harboring mad-cow disease. Also lungs, vertebrae and other sinewy products - namely dorsal root ganglia - of animals older than 12 months should also be removed from the food chain, the committee said. Officials said that could include certain cuts of beef and mutton meat close to the animal's spine.
The ban will not apply to meat from nations free from bovine spongiform encephalopathy - the scientific name for mad cow disease. The E.U. warning comes a week ahead of the start of a ban on rib roasts and other beef on the bone in Britain because scientists said there was a slim chance that humans can contract a variant of the fatal brain wasting disease from eating infecting bone marrow.
Earlier Wednesday, the commission proposed delaying a ban on products potentially harboring mad cow disease to allow more study of meat items that may join a list of forbidden foods. If approved by E.U. nations, the proposal will push back the start of the ban to March 31 from the original date of Jan. 1. That will allow more time to study the latest recommendation by the scientific committee.
The previous E.U. list of risky products included brains, eyes and spinal cords of older animals. Most controversially, it bans tallow and gelatin which are widely used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. Earlier this week, plans to exempt some pharmaceuticals from the ban were stymied by some E.U. countries seeking total exemptions from the ban. The pharmaceutical exemptions were proposed by the commission last week partly in response to U.S. complaints that the Jan. 1 ban could disrupt billions of dollars a year of U.S. pharmaceutical exports.
December 11, 1997 By DAVID EVANS, ReutersBRUSSELS - EU efforts to control mad cow disease suffered a setback on Wednesday after member states failed to back a proposal outlawing animal remains and scientists advised a list of banned material was not extensive enough. Legislation to remove rendered cattle brains and spinal cords from products was due to take effect on Jan. 1, but it has run into a series of trade and now scientific complications, leaving a delay the only option open to the European Commission.
"We will propose a postponement for three months," a Commission spokesman said. The ban has angered the EU's trading partners because of its implications for pharmaceutucals and cosmetics, many of which have ingredients such as tallow and gelatin. The United States in particular has voiced concern at the proposed ban, calling it unscientific and unjustified, and saying the issue could prompt a full-scale trade war. It argues it has no history of BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) and therefore should be exempt. Washington has estimated some $4.5 billion worth of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals could be jeopardised.
Faced with possible trade complications, the European Commission has tabled various amendments to the proposal. The latest, put forward last week, sought to eliminate from the EU so-called Specified Risk Material (SRM) -- the brain, spinal cord and eyes from cattle, sheep and goats over one year old and the spleen of any sheep or goats. It granted delays for up to two years for existing medicines and cosmetics, but still said that any new pharmaceutical product coming onto the EU market had to be SRM-free.
But at a meeting of key EU veterinary experts on Tuesday, the proposal received insufficient backing from member states, who want to negotiate their own exemptions to the legislation on the grounds they have no history of BSE. According to EU sources only five of the 15 national veterinary experts gave their support, effectively killing it off in its current form. European farm ministers will vote next week on delaying the proposal's implementation until April 1.
This will give the European Commission time to rework the wording -- on one hand to avoid the trade complications over pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, and on the other to take fresh scientific evidence into account. Another EU scientific committee, complicated the issue further on Wednesday by announcing that a planned list of banned animal parts should be extended.
The independent, but influential, Scientific Steering Committee said the intestines of bovines, sheep and goats of all ages and the lungs, vertebral column and dorsal root ganglia (nerve tissue close to the spine) of these animals over 12 months old should "be excluded from the feed and food chain" if they did not originate from a BSE-free country.
It also said the risk assessment for SRMs should not only relate to animal age and species, but also to geographical origin. This could, if incorporated in any new proposal, mean a ban being applied on a piecemeal basis within the union. "We have to study all the implications to avoid what happened to the previous proposal," a Commission official said.
The new EU advice follows Britain announcing a ban on in-bone beef following its own scientific advice that mad cow disease and its deadly human form new variant Creutzfledt Jakob Disease (nvCJD) could be transmitted via the dorsal root ganglia and bone marrow of infected cattle.
EU officials are still examining the advice, but said it could have implications for the sale of certain beef cuts such as t-bone steaks in parts of Europe other than Britain. EU scientists are still examining the safety of bone marrow, and are not expected to issue any opinion until next year.
(AP) Dow Jones Wed, Dec 10, 1997LONDON--British butchers launched a nationwide petition drive protesting the banning of beef on the bone, a decision made by the government after new fears about mad-cow disease. Many Britons have been crowding butcher shops to stock up on T-bone steaks, oxtail and roast ribs after the government announced last week that scientists had warned there was a slim chance bovine spongiform encephalopathy - the scientific name for mad-cow disease - can get into the human food chain through bone marrow.
The ban is due to take effect Tuesday.
"We haven't got much time, but we're doing everything we can to give customers who have been rushing in to buy beef on the bone and who oppose this measure a chance to make their feelings known," said John Fuller, director of the Federation of National Meat and Food Traders. Fuller said more than 60,000 petition forms had been distributed to the group's 3,000 members. Posters also have been put up in shops declaring: "Wanted: Beef on the Bone, Protect Your Right to Choose."
Meanwhile, British farmers on Wednesday labeled as a "sick joke" European Union proposals to ban sales of mutton on the bone as a precaution against mad cow disease. The suggestion, made by scientists at EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, is to outlaw sales of meat on the bone from all sheep, goats and cattle more than 12 months old, as part of a package of precautionary measures. A spokesman for the EU executive agency said it was too early to say precisely which cuts of older sheep would be affected by any ban - if one was enacted at all.
Since the first beef scare in March 1996, at least 20 people have died in Britain of a new strain of Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease, a brain-wasting disease linked to mad cow. John Thorley of the National Sheep Association noted that meat from sheep had not been identified as the cause of any cases of CJD.
"It's absolute nonsense," Thorley said. "The idea that we should change the whole sheep industry as a precaution against a risk which frankly doesn't exist is ridiculous." "It's a sick joke in very bad taste," he said.The British government's advisory body on BSE had ruled out the need for a ban on the sales of sheep meat on the bone. Of the estimated 17 million sheep slaughtered in Britain this year, only about 2 million were more than 12 months old, a spokesman said. And many of those, he said, were used by food manufacturers rather than being sold as cuts of meat.
PA News Wed, Dec 10, 1997 By Geoff Meade, European Editor, and Jo ButlerFarmers today branded European Union proposals to ban sales of lamb on the bone a "sick joke". The plans, put forward by European experts could spell the end of traditional roasts including rack of lamb and "devastate" Britain's sheep-farming industry, they warned.
The recommendation was made independently of the Government's own plans to ban T-bone steaks and other cuts of beef on the bone. Those plans had already sparked uproar among beleaguered beef farmers in an agriculture industry already up in arms over competition from foreign imports. The latest suggestion, made by scientists in Brussels, is to outlaw sales of meat on the bone from all sheep and goats as well as cattle over 12 months old, as part of a package of measures to ensure that sheep which could be harbouring the BSE agent do not spread it on to humans.
The proposal would almost certainly mean rack of lamb disappearing from the family dinner table -- along with any other cut directly linked to the lamb's spinal column, such as some chops.
A European Commission spokesman said it was too early to say precisely which cuts of lamb and sheep meat would be affected by any ban. John Thorley of the National Sheep Association said the risk of catching CJD from eating beef on the bone was minimal -- and was non-existent in the case of meat from sheep, which had not been identified as the cause of any cases of the human form of "mad cow disease".
"It's absolute nonsense," he said. "The idea that we should change the whole sheep industry as a precaution against a risk which frankly doesn't exist is ridiculous. "It's in the same league as square eggs and straight bananas. "This would have a devastating impact on the industry -- it's a sick joke in very bad taste."A National Farmers Union spokesman said the proposal, although a long way from becoming law, was yet another blow for crisis-stricken farmers.
"This will be viewed by producers with a great deal of dismay," he said. "Consumer health and protection must be the most important aspect of any decision -- however we would strongly urge the Government to undertake extensive consultation before taking any action on this."SEAC, the Government's advisory body on BSE had ruled out the need for a ban on sales of sheep meat on the bone when it gave the advice which sparked last week's announcement of a ban on bone-in beef.
December 11 1997 BY CHARLES BREMNER AND MICHAEL HORNSBYJACK CUNNINGHAM, the Agriculture Minister, last night rejected a call from scientists in Brussels for a ban on lamb containing spinal bone. The scientists want the ban because of a risk that such meat might be infected with the "mad cow" disease BSE.
The Scientific Steering Committee, an influential 16-member advisory panel, said the European Union should apply the ban to meat from all animals more than 12 months old, but added in a footnote that in "high risk" countries, apparently meaning Britain, the age limit should be reduced to six months.
Dr Cunningham said last night that the Government took guidance from its own scientists and not from an advisory committee in Brussels. The Government had already decided to require the removal of skull and spinal cord (not bone) from all sheep over the age of 12 months from January 1, Dr Cunningham said, and his scientists had advised him that no further action was needed. The ban proposed by the Brussels committee would chiefly affect the vertebral column and associated nervous tissue.
If a six-month age limit were enforced, much of British lamb production would be affected. Leg joints would appear to be safe, because they contain no spinal bone. Whether ordinary lamb chops would be affected is not clear, and any ban might depend on how the chops are cut from the spinal column.
Of the 16 million sheep slaughtered last year, 12.4 million (78 per cent) were between the ages of five and 12 months, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. Britain has 86,364 sheep farmers, by far the largest number in the EU. Of these, 45,295 are in England, 16,348 in Wales, 14,598 in Scotland and 10,123 in Northern Ireland.
Officials in Brussels said the recommendation by the committee was merely preliminary advice that would still have to be considered by the European Commission and EU member states.
The proposal is unlikely to find support because EU members only reluctantly accepted less drastic controls on sheep meat due to come into effect next month but likely to be postponed until April. The committee's proposal would also apply to cattle over 12 months old, effectively extending throughout the EU the ban on beef on the bone that Britain is introducing. Most other EU states would regard such a move as wholly unnecessary.
Sir David Naish, president of the National Farmers' Union, said: "I am exasperaed by yet another recommendation which would appear to go well beyond what is necessary, taking into account the fact that the scientists themselves say the risk involved to human life is so remote."
John Thorley, chief executive of the National Sheep Association, said: "This is absolute nonsense. We are being asked to change the whole way we rear sheep as a precaution against a risk that does not even exist." The National Federation of Meat and Food Traders said butchers would fiercely resist any move to implement the committee's recommendation. "This would cut a swath through lamb sales and have a significant impact on the industry," John Fuller, the federation's director, said.
The reasoning behind the Brussels' proposal is that BSE might have passed to sheep through contaminated feed and be disguised as scrapie, a very similar brain condition that has been present in sheep for centuries without harming humans.
The Government's Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee has long accepted that this is a theoretical risk, although tests have so far found no evidence of BSE in sheep.
The committee recommended last year that the Government should ban consumption of the spinal cords and brains of sheep, but only from those over 12 months old. Nearly all lamb sold in shops is from animals younger than that.
Professor Richard Lacey, a leading microbiologist who was among the first scientists to raise the alarm about beef, said last night that he could see no danger from lamb and described the Brussels proposals as "wildly over the top".
The Brussels steering committee, which is composed of scientists from all 15 member states, was set up under Emma Bonino, the Consumer Health Commissioner.
Europe Information Service December 6, 1997On December 3, the European Commission found itself in the unaccustomed position of being pre-empted by the UK in the battle to eradicate Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). UK Agriculture Minister Jack Cunningham's surprise announcement of an immediate ban on sales of beef on the bone, on the grounds that the nerve matter surrounding the vertebrae cannot be considered safe to eat in cases of cattle with BSE, prompted a frank admission from a Commission spokesman that the risk-status of cattle bones had not been actively considered by the EU's own scientists.
However, he indicated that the UK side had made the scientific findings that underlie this latest move available to the EU Scientific Veterinary Committee, which will now consider what action to take. The institution is adopting a similar "wait-and-see " approach to the ongoing blockade of Irish beef imports by Welsh and Scottish farmers. Meanwhile, on December 3, the full team of Commissioners unveiled two proposed amendments to the controversial ban on specified risk materials (SRMs), which are designed to defuse an impending trade dispute with the US (see European Report No. 2273).
However, this development is highly significant for two reasons: Firstly, it represents yet another setback to the UK's attempts to obtain a relaxation of the Commission's March 1996 ban on exports of UK beef. While the Commission has not yet decided how this latest discovery will affect the UK's position, one source indicated that all initiatives to lift the ban will be put on hold until the implications of SEAC's findings have been fully thought through. It is clear, however, that by taking prompt action of its own accord, the UK side is hoping to forestall any future moves to extend the ban any longer than necessary.
Secondly, the affair raises the question of whether or not the Commission should follow suit, and suspend all sales of beef on the bone (which account for about 5% of all EU beef sales) throughout the EU. On December 4, a spokesman for the EU's Agriculture Directorate-General said that the EU Scientific Veterinary Committee has for some time been considering extending the list of prohibited specified risk materials (SRMs - certain animal offals that present a particularly high risk of BSE infection) to include dorsal ganglia, but had not given the matter a high priority as the risk involved was not thought to be great. He stressed also that the degree of infectiousness in dorsal ganglia uncovered by the UK research team was low - according to one estimate, only 3 of the 2.2 million cattle due to enter the UK food chain in 1998 could pose a threat to human health in this way. However, the spokesman frankly admitted that the Veterinary Committee had not considered the issue of bone marrow at all. The Committee will now examine the findings of the UK scientists, and will deliver its opinion as soon as possible. Commission sources say that the outcome might be known as early as December 8.
Commissioner Bangemann's amendment, then, deals with the more problematic category of products ( including non-essential pharmaceuticals, confectionery, and pet food), which have been manufactured using the beef by-products tallow and gelatine. Essentially, this amendment would have the effect of allowing most producers to continue exporting to the EU as normal for a transitional period beyond the January 1 deadline. The intention in most cases is to avoid retroactive implementation of the ban - that is, to allow producers to exhaust the stocks of finished products, as well as tallow and gelatine, that they have built up before the measure's entry into force. However, the length of the approved transitional period varies from product to product:
*Products that are authorised for sale in the EU for the first time after the January 1 deadline will be entitled to no transitional period at all; all SRMs must be eliminated from their production processes one way or another right from the start.
*Products that are already on the market, however, can be exported as normal until January 1, 1999. During this one-year period of grace, producers must strive to exhaust their stocks, and implement safe manufacturing processes or explore the possibilities of using substitute materials.
*Specialised biotech products whose present production process already effectively eliminates SRMs benefit from a longer transitional period, to July 1, 1999. However, beyond this deadline, SRMs must be altogether removed at the start of the production process, as a precautionary measure.
*Non-essential pharmaceuticals with few or no therapeutic alternatives can be exported as normal until January 1, 2000. Once again, however, SRMs must be eliminated from their production process beyond this date.
*Finally, manufacturers of tallow-based products are entitled to a permanent exemption, provided the tallow material is treated according to a "validated and strictly certified method ". Hydrolosis at 250o.C and 50 bar pressure for 3 hours followed by distillation at 200o.C is cited as an example of one such method.
The full team of Commissioners considered both of these amendments on December 3, and forwarded them to the Standing Veterinary Committee and the Standing Committee on Pharmaceuticals respectively. The Pharmaceuticals Committee is expected to decide on the issue on December 5, but the Veterinary Committee will not reach a decision until December 9. In accordance with the usual procedures, the Commission will adopt the proposed amendments itself if they are agreed by qualified majority at Committee level. If this qualified majority is not forthcoming, however, the matter will be passed on to the December 15/16 Council of Agriculture Ministers for a final decision. Given the wide support that a postponement, or indeed an outright suppression of the measure enjoys amongst the Member States (see European Report No.2270), this is not an outcome that the Commission would favour. However, many Commission sources are resigned to the fact that internal opposition to the measure will make itself felt as soon as these proposals are forwarded to the Committees, both of which represent Member State interests.
Meanwhile, it is not clear that this latest initiative goes far enough to allay the suspicions of the US, which stands to lose USD4.5 billion worth of revenue from pharmaceutical exports. On December 2, one US source, while welcoming the move as a sign that the Commission is relaxing its earlier hard -line stance, said "the US position is that, as it has never suffered an outbreak of BSE, the SRM ban should not apply products imported from the US ". The following day, Peter Scher, US Special Trade Ambassador for Agriculture, said that these amendments were a step in the right direction, but expressed the view that the measure could still lead to a trade dispute with the US next year.
However, on December 4 a spokesman for Single Market Commissioner Mario Monti said that the EU is only empowered to take a Member State to the European Court of Justice under these circumstances when there is a demonstrable failure on its part to uphold Single Market regulations. At present, it is too early to say whether or not the UK authorities are meeting their obligations in this regard. But the spokesman said that the Commission services are monitoring the situation, and will not hesitate to act if necessary. In the meantime, both Single Market Commissioner Mario Monti and Franz Fischler expressed their concern over the blockade in letters to the UK authorities on December 4. Commissioner Monti took the opportunity to ask Lord Simon of Highbury, the UK Minister for Trade and Competitiveness in Europe, to give full details within 5 days of the measures the UK authorities are taking to restore the free circulation of goods. Mr Monti said on BBC television that if he did not receive a satisfactory reply, he would not hesitate to open infringement proceedings under Article 169 of the EC Treaty.
December 5, 1997, The Irish Times Lara Marloweннн Ireland kept ranks with its European partners by withdrawing its ambassador from Tehran for seven months after a German court accused Iran's leaders of ordering the murder of four dissidents in Berlin. Dublin has also supported London in the acrimony over the Iranian fatwa against the British writer, Salman Rushdie. Yet Ireland's main concern in its relations with Tehran remains the Iranian ban on Irish beef imports, due to fear of BSE or mad cow disease.
Irish farmers are losing (pounds) 30 million a year because of the decision, and Dublin has sent several delegations to Tehran in hope of convincing the Iranian Veterinary Organisation that Irish measures against BSE are effective.
"There is still a residual concern on the part of the Iranians, " Ireland's Ambassador, Mr Tony Mannix, says. "We are hopeful that before too long we will be able to overcome their fears. The Iranians assure us it is not a political problem, that it is purely a health problem. "Our argument is that we have so very few cases - perhaps 250 out of up to eight million cattle, " Mr Mannix continued. "Compared to Britain, where they've had more than 100,000 cases, it is microscopic. Irish veterinary health controls are among the strictest in the world. The disease has not occurred at all in the type of beef they import, which is young steers. "Iran lifted its ban on French beef imports early this year, and Mr Mannix hopes Irish exports may resume soon. "What makes the Iranians particularly nervous is the common border with the UK, although Northern Ireland is almost clear of the disease now, " he explains. Beef was Ireland's principal export to Iran, and export figures have plummeted from $ 58.1 million in 1995 to just $ 1.2 million for the first four months of this year.
Washington claims the EU has taken a soft line with Iran out of greed; trade with Iran represents only a small fraction of their total exports, the Europeans respond. They were trying to promote reform and encourage Iranian moderates with their "critical dialogue ". The freeze of that policy appears to be thawing.
"The Iranians have called for restoration of what they prefer to call 'constructive dialogue', Mr Mannix says. "On the European side, we are looking for the best way forward. "The face-saving compromise that has just brought EU ambassadors back to Tehran was typical of Europe's roller-coaster relations with the Islamic Republic. Iran was outraged when the German court accused Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, its Supreme Leader and Guide of the Revolution, of complicity in the 1992 slaying of four Kurdish opponents in a Berlin nightclub. Europeans were confronted with evidence that "critical dialogue " had failed to alter Iranian behaviour.
Ayatollah Khamenei was determined to punish Bonn. If the ambassadors were to return, he said, the German envoy must come back last. Paris engineered the solution whereby most of the Europeans - including Mr Mannix - returned in a first group on November 14th.
The Mirror December 5, 1997, FridayWhy the new scare over beef?
Answer: Scientists have just discovered a small chance that Mad Cow Disease can be spread through bone or bone marrow.
Which products are affected?
Answer: T-bone steaks, ribs, oxtails and soups and stocks containing bones from British cattle .
BSE affects cattle. What is the risk to humans?
Answer: As The Mirror revealed last year, people who eat infected meat are at risk from CJD. There have been 22 cases so far.
HOW many cattle slaughtered for food are likely to have infected bones?
Answer: Just six out of 2.2 million killed each year.
SO how likely is it that someone will catch BSE through eating beef on the bone?
Answer: There's a five per cent chance of one just person being infected.
Did Agriculture Minister Jack Cunningham have any options other than an all -out ban?
Answer: Yes. He could have only banned beef on the bone from cattle aged over 24 months which are more a BSE risk. Or he could have given the public the facts and let them choose whether to buy it or not.
Whose advice did he take?
Answer: He consulted Chief Medical Officer Sir Kenneth Calman.
Can we eat any on-bone beef?
Answer: Only if the bone has been removed by your butcher before you buy it.
So why can't we just remove it ourselves?
Answer: Agriculture officials say deboning must be done by butchers, who know what they're doing [??? ---webmaster], to rule out risks.
Is the rest of British beef safe?
Answer: Experts say it is, because stringent measures following the first BSE scare have made the risk of infection negligible.
Agence France Presse December 04, 1997Switzerland is considering banning sales of beef on the bone, a public health official said Thursday, one day after Britain announced plans to end such sales. Lorenz Hess, federal health ministry spokesman told Swiss television that Switzerland took very seriously research by experts which suggests that bovine spongiform encepalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease could be spread through bones and bone marrow.
BSE is judged responsible for the new strain of a human brain disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob, which has killed more than 20 people so far in Britain. Scientists in Britain Thursday admitted the risk was small, with only six cattle among the 2.2 million slaughtered this year thought likely to pose any hazard at all.
Hess said Bern would probably have to follow the lead of London which is proposing to de-bone all beef, home produced or imported, from cattle over six months old before it could be sold.
DAILY MAIL (London) December 4, 1997THE government faces a backlash from the food industry with accusations that the new safety measures are 'lunacy followed by panic'. Farmers and butchers are preparing for the worst, warning that the beef industry will face millions of pounds of meat having to be destroyed.
Supermarkets are stripping their shelves of premium steaks while restaurateurs hastily rewrite menus. Some 40,000 tons of bone-in beef is sold every year in a market with an estimated value of $150 million - around half goes to the catering trade.
Around 11,000 family butchers throughout the UK will have to change their traditional ways of working. They fear that if the ban is imposed in a draconian fashion their practice of maintaining quality and flavour by leaving it to the last minute before cutting meat from bone will have to end.
Sides of beef may be boned out in central plants, under official supervision and the flesh vacuum-packed and sent out to shops around the country. Specialist butchers whose trade is predominantly the supply of bone-in meat to restaurants and hotels fear they could be put out of business altogether.
David Lidgate of 150-year-old butchers C. Lidgate in Holland Park, West London, said: 'It's not the cows that are mad, it's the Government. It's lunacy followed by panic.' John Fuller, of the National Federation of Meat and Food Traders, said: 'The real issue is what this does for consumer confidence. The fact that these traditional cuts will change will disappoint people.
'The numbers of CJD cases is extremely small. BSE was first identified in 1986, but where is the evidence of the great epidemic that the doom merchants have been peddling?' Elizabeth Sunley, assistant director of the British Meat Manufacturers Association, whose members make pies, burgers, sausages and ready meals, said the measure would have a knock-on effect for all beef products.
Tesco, Sainsbury, Safeway and Marks & Spencer all announced that they would no longer sell beef on the bone with immediate effect. A Marks & Spencer spokesman said rib of beef sold at 60 stores had been removed from shelves. Tesco offered refunds to customers who had recently bought beef on the bone from stores and also cleared shelves of nine types of rib and boiling beef products.
Safeway said rib of beef would now be sold off the bone in its 444 stores at the same price per pound - effectively giving customers more meat for their money. The Food & Drink Federation, which represents retailers and manufacturers, said companies selling beef stock cubes and soups in the UK had eliminated any risk by producing them in BSE-free countries - mainly Sweden and Australia.
The Pet Food Manufacturers Association admitted that member companies might have to change their manufacturing procedures. A spokesman said: 'We would like to reassure pet owners that they should continue to feed their pets prepared pet food with confidence.' However he said that it would take some time to be certain that the latest findings from SEAC would not require changes to manufacturing.
Many restaurants also reacted swiftly. The large Beefeater chain has removed T-bone steaks from its 300 restaurants. Chef Michel Roux, of London's Le Gavroche restaurant, complained: 'If it's come to banning the sale of beef on the bone they may as well go the whole way and ban beef. The government should be more supportive of the beef market.' Carl Smith, manager of the renowned Guinea Grill in Mayfair, said: 'Steak is what our reputation is founded on. I'm not a scientist but this does seem to be ultra-cautious.
'I think with all the precautions in force already, Britain must have the safest beef on earth.' 0 If it's come to this they may as well ban beef TWO years ago, beef farmer Peter Sherborne was earning around $20,000 from his 50-strong herd. This year he expects his income to drop to less than half that.
Most of his profits from cattle come from barren cows (those which can no longer reproduce), which used to sell at market for around $700. This week he sold one at Winford Cattle Market in Somerset for $290.
Mr Sherborne, 50, who runs a 150-acre farm in Chelwood, Somerset, said: 'The last two years have been a real struggle. 'You just have to keep tightening another notch on your belt but I'm running out of notches. It's not just us farmers who suffer but the whole industry. No one can afford to buy new machinery so they suffer too.' Mr Sherborne (pictured), who has lost five dairy cattle to BSE, added: 'This latest news about beef on the bone is the last nail in the coffin for beef farmers. 'We have already been hit so bad that we probably cannot sink very much lower.
I'm running out of notches to tighten on my belt, says farmer 'The Government is definitely not doing enough to help us. We are in a terrible state. 'The price of beef cattle has fallen to below half what it was and the country is being flooded with cheap foreign imports. 'When the government makes stupid decisions to ban on-the-bone steak, what hope have we got?'
FOR years, Britain's consumers have been fed a diet of false promises and meaningless assurances about the safety of beef. Here we chart the beginnings of a public health furore.
1985: Symptoms of Mad Cow Disease - staggering, loss of balance and limb control seen at Plurenden Manor Farm, Ashford, Kent. Ministry of Agriculture launches inquiry.
November 1986: The Government's Central Veterinary Laboratory in Weybridge, Surrey, identifies BSE as a new condition. Cause traced to feed made from carcasses of sheep infected with the brain disease scrapie.
July 1988: Farmers told BSE cattle must be slaughtered. They are offered 50 per cent of the market value of their animals in compensation. This has to be increased to 100 per cent when it is realised that farmers have no incentive to reveal their animal is sick, because they will lose half its value.
February 1989: Government inquiry headed by Sir Richard Southwood predicts that the disease will begin to die out after 1993.
Budget Day 1989: Certain cattle offal banned from use in food production.
July 1991: Agriculture Select Committee rules beef is safe.
March 12, 1993: Government chief medical officer, Dr Kenneth Calman, issues a statement to say that BSE is no threat to humans under pressure from farmers' leaders.
November 1994: Professor Richard Lacey, of Leeds University, warns that if BSE can be transmitted between mother and calf in the womb, it may never be wiped out.
July 1, 1995: New government 'crackdown' when evidence suggests that the thymus glands and intestines of calves under six months should be banned.
November 28, 1995: Agriculture Minister Douglas Hogg bans use of vertebrae from cattle aged over six months. Tighter controls on abattoirs announced.
December 8, 1995: Prime Minister John Major tells the Commons: 'There is currently no scientific evidence that BSE can be transmitted to humans or that eating beef causes CJD.' March 20, 1996: Douglas Hogg and Health Secretary Stephen Dorrell admit BSE can be passed to humans through eating infected beef. SEAC - the Government committee of scientists investigating the disease - reports that brain proteins, called prions, similar to those found in BSE-infected cattle have been found in human victims of new strain CJD.
Further controls on the slaughter of cattle.
March 21, 1996: European countries rush to impose ban on all beef products from Britain. McDonald's bans British beef.
May 4, 1996: The slaughter of two million cattle over 30 months of age begins.
June 15, 1996: John Major claims to have agreed framework for removal of beef ban at EU summit in Florence. It is still in place.
July 22, 1996: 'New research' indicates sheep can develop BSE from eating infected feed. Sheep heads and brains to be removed from food chain.
August 1, 1996: SEAC reveals that cows can pass on BSE to their calves with potentially devastating implications - just as Professor Lacey had warned in 1994. Mr Hogg insists public is being protected.
February 10, 1997: Think-tank of scientists rubberstamps declaration that beef is safe.
June 1997: Microbiologist Dr Stephen Dealler warns that BSE and CJD could be transmitted via blood transfusions.
October 7, 1997: National Blood Transfusion service begins nationwide hunt for blood donated by CJD victims, but officials say there is 'no evidence' that CJD can be transmitted in this way.
December 1, 1997: Inquiry launched into why three patients were given transplants from a woman infected with CJD.
December 3, 1997: Ban on bone-in cuts of beef. News follows concern about infectivity of 'dorsal root ganglions', small nerve packets encased within the vertebral column. This measure described as 'extreme precaution'.