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Cost of BSE scare rockets

BERLIN, Germany -- An additional one billion euros is being set aside by European Union chiefs to deal with the outbreak of mad cow disease, its budget commissioner has said.

Michaele Schreyer said 971 million euros ($903 million) would go towards dealing with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) -- 700 million euros for the destruction of two million cattle across Europe and 271 million euros for testing and other measures.

The cost could mean cuts by finance ministers in other areas of the EU's budget for 2001.

The news comes as France discovered four new cases of the brain wasting disease as a result of using a new testing scheme for all cattle aged over 30 months destined for the food chain.

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One of the animals diagnosed with the disease was born in the Ain region of eastern France in 1995.

Since the new system began on January 2, laboratories have conducted more than 71,000 tests.

Scientists believe BSE can be passed to humans in the form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease via infected meat products.

The EU will pay farmers 70 percent of the market price of any cattle they are forced to slaughter.

Germany has confirmed a total 16 cases of BSE since national tests were launched after the emergence of the first case in November.

Germany's new Consumer Protection and Agriculture Minister Renate Kuenast told parliament last week that Germany was likely to have between 200 and 500 confirmed cases of mad cow disease by the end of the year.

Germany may slaughter up to 400,000 cows in combating BSE.

Italy announced its first suspected BSE case since 1994 last week.

Reuters contributed to this report.



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RELATED SITES:
European Union
French Agricultural ministry

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