German herd slaughtered in BSE scare

German beef sales have fallen 60 percent since November

HAMBURG, Germany -- German officials in the eastern state Saxony-Anhalt have ordered the slaughter of an entire herd of cattle after a confirmed mad cow case.

The slaughter of the 1,012-strong herd is the first such measure since the discovery of Germany's initial BSE case in November.

"The crisis team has decided on killing the entire herd," regional government official Tilo Heuer said on Thursday.

It is the latest action in the fight against BSE and comes as the French Government urged the country's beef industry to label products more clearly in a bid to regain consumer confidence.

Germany has identified 19 cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) after three new cases were confirmed on Wednesday.

Although some 2,000 cattle had been slaughtered and burned so far in the country, this was the first instance where the destruction of an entire herd had been ordered.

The farm's cattle were split in two groups eight kilometres (five miles) apart but the whole herd was condemned because both feed and animals had been moved several times between the two locations.

Heuer said the affected farm, a cooperative employing 20 people in the village of Muecheln, 100 km south-west of Berlin, had to bear the slaughter costs.

Mad cow disease has killed thousands of cattle across Europe and is believed by scientists to be linked to the human form of the ailment Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The BSE scare has sent German beef sales tumbling 60 percent and prices down 35 percent since November. The meat industry estimates consumption will fall by 80 percent this year compared with 2000, threatening some 10,000 jobs.

French consumption of beef plunged last year when three supermarket chains said they had sold beef from a herd containing an animal infected with BSE.

But in an effort to regain confidence, French Farm Minister Jean Glavany and junior Consumer Affairs Minister Francois Patriat urged beef producers to go beyond the current European Union labelling rules.

The call came one day after France's top consumer rights group urged shoppers to boycott beef that was not clearly labelled.

The group, UFC-Que Choisir, called for action over the beef industry's decision to stop labelling beef with the origin, breed, age and sex of the animal.

The group said beef producers agreed in 1997 to include such details on labels, but that accord had lapsed last September.

It was dropped in favour of an EU-wide labelling system in which the date and place of slaughter are required, but the breed and category of the animal are not.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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French Government directory
World Health Organisation: BSE and vCJD fact sheet
Human BSE Foundation

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