Belgian Expert Bemoans EU Panic Over BSE
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wamc/news/world/article/84766.html

Commento: se si incenerisce il mangime animale, e se come suggeriscono negli USA è contaminato da radionucleidi, si rischia di spargere radioisotopi dello stronzio nell'atmosfera. Dopodiché rientrano nel ciclo alimentare. Così come avviene con l'incenerimento di sostanze radioattive, tipo i rifiuti ospedalieri.

 BRUSSELS (Reuters) 12-16-2000 - Belgium's top mad cow expert joined others on Saturday in warning that the European Union's latest attempts to stem the spread of the disease smacked of panic and could exacerbate risks to human health.

 ``The European Union has played panic football under pressure from the consumer,'' Emmanuel Vanopdenbosch of Belgium's Centre for Veterinary and Agrochemcial Research said in an interview with the newspaper De Standaard.

 ``Instead of bringing the BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) risk under control, they have created an even greater public health problem,'' Vanopdenbosch, an adviser to the Belgian government and European Commission, said.

 In a bid to restore consumer confidence in beef after reports of fresh mad cow cases around the continent, EU farm ministers decided earlier this month to temporarily ban all meat and bone meal in animal feed and to cull older cattle which have not been tested for the disease.

 Ministers are due to meet again next Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss how to implement the decisions as well as hold a rare televised debate on food safety issues.

 But Vanopdenbosch said the EU's decision would create mountains of waste and be hugely expensive.

 He said in Belgium alone the meat and bone meal ban would mean one million tons of animal
 feed would have to be burned at a cost of some $244.8 million. In addition, tons of carcasses would have to be stored until they could be destroyed.

 De Morgen newspaper reported on Saturday that Agriculture minister Jaak Gabriels had estimated the cost of burning unwanted meat and bone meal at seven billion francs. He was to hold talks on the issue with regional farm ministers on Monday, ahead of the EU farm ministers meeting.

 ``I have seen what happens in England,'' he said. ``Rats, cats, dogs, mice run round eating the meal and spreading it around. A big risk, because cats and rodents are also susceptible to BSE,'' he said.

 Britain has had a ban on meat and bone meal since 1996 and British scientists have already warned about the health problems posed by having to store tons of animal waste.

 There is a Europe-wide shortage of hot furnaces which can destroy the mutated brain proteins that cause BSE.

 France, which sparked the latest mad cow scare in November following the first confirmed deaths there from new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, the human form of BSE, said recently it planned to store meat and bone meal at military bases.

 Vanopdenbosch said there was practically no risk to humans who continued to eat beef.

 ``Even if you eat meat from a mad cow, the risk that you will become sick is so small as to be negligible,'' he said, adding that the chances of getting salmonella poisoning were much greater.

 Thirty percent of Belgium's pig farms are contaminated by one sort of salmonella, local media reported this week.

 © Copyright 2000, Reuters News Service