France begins mad cow tests

France wants to restore faith in beef

PARIS, France -- France has started BSE tests on all cattle older than 30 months ahead of the European Union deadline for the programme.

Agriculture Minister Jean Glavany said the initiative would hopefully restore consumer confidence.

"Since the decision was taken at EU level to test or to destroy all cattle older than 30 months, it became very difficult to sell animals that were past that age," he said an interview with the daily Humanite on Tuesday.

The testing of older cattle for mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), comes six months before the July 1 deadline for such tests to begin across the European Union.

France hopes to test 20,000 animals every week for the deadly, brain-wasting illness, which scientists believe can be passed on to humans via infected beef.

"We have the capacity to perform several thousand tests as of the beginning of January," Glavany said.

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EU farm ministers last month approved a programme to destroy all older non-BSE tested cattle to keep them out of the food chain, affecting up to two million animals.

In France, animals that test negative for BSE will be allowed to be sold and enter the food chain while infected animals will be destroyed, along with all the other animals in its herd.

France reported 153 cases of BSE in 2000, more than five times the number detected in 1999.

Meanwhile, Spanish authorities have caused uproar by dumping dead cows in an abandoned mine near a village.

The dumping has been triggered by new sanitation rules in the wake of Europe's mad cow scare.

The regional government in Galicia -- where Spain's two only confirmed cases of mad cow surfaced in November -- said on Tuesday the remains of some 100 cows have been placed in a disused quartz strip mine just outside Lanza in La Coruna province and covered with quicklime.

The dispute comes as officials in another heavily agricultural region of Spain, Castile-Leon, reported two suspected cases of the illness. Test results are expected later this week.

Officials in Galicia, who did not say how many animals were destined for the mine, said the burial technique conforms with EU health regulations.

The mine covers an area of about 10 acres and the carcasses are spread over a patch the size of a soccer field.

People in Lanza are worried that the rotting flesh will poison streams or ground water.

Lanza, which has a population of about 500, falls under the jurisdiction of the broader municipality -- Mesia.

Mesia Mayor Jose Fraga appealed to the Galician government to halt the operation and said he had asked a prosecutor to launch a probe.

Galician agriculture department spokesman Manuel Cruz said that although none of the cattle were tested for BSE, veterinarians had certified the cause of death in each case and there was no health risk from dumping them in the mine.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.

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