Europe warns Germany over BSE

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Europe's food safety commissioner David Byrne has called on Germany to stop exporting meat products that might harbour mad cow disease.

Germany announced a voluntary recall of all domestic meat products that might be infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) this week, including sausages made of meat from the backbones of cattle.

Byrne said the same controls should also apply to exports.

"My overriding concern is that consumers in other member states are afforded an equal level of protection as consumers in Germany," he said in a statement.

"I welcome these precautionary measures but I insist that they must apply also to all meat products and meat preparations exported to all other member states and third countries," Byrne said.

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Byrne said if Germany and its food industry could not achieve that then the commission would require the withdrawal of potentially-contaminated products across the 15-nation European Union.

German health minister Andrea Fischer earlier warned consumers to stop eating some sausages made of meat from the backbones of cattle, calling for them to be taken off the market.

Suspect meat could be lurking in some types of cooked sausage made before October 1.

Until October, processors were allowed to include shreds of meat from the stripped carcasses of slaughtered cattle -- including the spine, which can harbour mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Germany had maintained for a long time that it was BSE-free. Four of the five cases now discovered come from Bavaria, which produces nearly 30 percent of German beef.

The first infections of German-born cattle were discovered last month.

Austria, one of the few European countries with no reported cases of BSE, this week banned the import of German beef.

The EU said it could proceed with the measure under the bloc's national safeguard rules.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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European Union
German Government

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