French consumers want greater testing for mad cow disease in food

PARIS (Reuters) -- French consumers urged the government on Monday to widen its testing program for mad cow disease after new revelations raised doubts about the country's fight against the deadly brain-wasting illness.

The group ConsoFrance, representing several consumer organizations, asked the government to systematically test all cattle for the disease, not just those destined for the human food chain, and to ultimately extend testing to all animals.

ConsoFrance also joined the Greens party, junior partners in France's Socialist-dominated coalition government, in demanding an immediate ban on the feeding of animal products to other animals.

France currently bans meat and bone meal in cattle feed amid fears they play a key role in transmitting the disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

ConsoFrance's demands came after a trader accused of knowingly selling a cow infected with BSE to a slaughterhouse was ordered to taken back into custody on Sunday along with his son.

A ton of beef from other animals in the herd, which the trader sold to the same facility, ended up in 39 supermarkets of the Carrefour chain and was recalled over the weekend. Two more tons of meat were intercepted at the slaughterhouse.

The farm ministry said it was taking legal action against the trader after veterinary inspectors at the facility confirmed on Friday that a cow in the herd had BSE. Carrefour also said on Monday it was suing the beef supplier.

French food producers' group ANIA on Monday asked the government, which is currently testing 48,000 cattle for BSE, to develop a faster, more reliable testing method for the disease.

ANIA President Victor Scherrer suggested France should devote some of its fiscal surplus to improving the test.

"This would cost 800 or 900 million francs ($102-$115 million) but if we have to spend it, we will," Scherrer told a news conference at the giant food industry trade show SIAL outside of Paris.

France reported nine new cases of the fatal mad cow disease or BSE last week, bringing the number reported in the country this year to 71, compared with a total of 30 in 1999.

The new cases of BSE and the meat scare have provoked renewed calls for tighter controls on food safety.

Scientists believe BSE-infected meat can cause a new form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, an illness that has killed about 70 people in Britain and two in France.

France remains locked in a legal battle with the European Commission over its refusal to end a ban on imports of British beef because of fears it is not entirely free from BSE.

Britain has reported more than 176,800 cases of BSE since 1986, making the French outbreak small by comparison.

But while cases in Britain are falling, they are increasing in France, despite measures introduced nearly 10 years ago to combat the spread of BSE through contaminated animal feed.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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