Germany weighs up British lamb ban

BERLIN, Germany -- Germany's main opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has demanded a ban on imports of British lamb amid fears that sheep scrapie is behind mad cow disease and its fatal human form.

A government spokeswoman said on Sunday it was studying health risks associated with lamb, but said it was too early to say whether a ban was necessary.

"Everything is in flux at the moment," said the spokeswoman for the Federal Agriculture Ministry, which has set up a commission to determine further action after the discovery of Germany's first two cases of mad cow disease last month.

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The CDU said Britain, with far more cases of mad cow disease or BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) than anywhere else in Europe, should still be considered the major danger zone despite the spread of the disease elsewhere.

"Unified rules for meat- and fish-based feed in Europe are just a start," said party leader Angela Merkel of the European Union's move to ban for six months meat-based animal feed, linked to BSE.

"We also need an export ban on British beef and an import ban on British lamb because the sheep illness scrapie is widespread there," she told the Bild am Sonntag.

Germany pushed strongly for the first EU-wide ban on British beef in 1996 and only removed the embargo earlier this year on condition the meat was clearly labelled in future.

Scientists believe mad cow disease was transmitted to cattle through feed made from the carcasses of sheep infected with scrapie, a similar, fatal, brain-wasting illness to BSE.

BSE has been linked to its human form, new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), which has killed more than 80 people in Britain and two in France. Scientists suspect the disease is transmitted through eating contaminated beef.

It is not clear what threat, if any, scrapie-infected meat poses to human health.

"This issue has not been cleared up yet," said Agriculture Ministry spokeswoman Sigrun Neuwerth. "But if any trade measures were to be taken, there would have to be a Europe-wide consensus on them," she said, adding attempts by a single country to impose import bans were likely to fail in the European single market.

Beef sales in Germany plummeted after authorities confirmed on November 24 that two cattle of German origin had been found to have BSE.

No vCJD cases have been identified in Germany, although at least one person is suspected to be suffering from the illness, usually confirmed by a postmortem examination.

Neuwerth said a panel of experts had been commissioned to study whether further measures were needed. It was not clear when the panel would report its conclusions.

Switzerland could outlaw meat and bone meal in cattle feed from January, instead of March as previously planned, the federal veterinary office said on Sunday.

Hans Wyss, the office's spokesman, told the Swiss news agency SDA that the ban was already in de facto effect, with cabinet approval the final step needed to make it law.

"No new bone meal is being distributed," he said. "Only the meal already in circulation can be used for feed additives."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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UK Ministry of Agriculture
German Agriculture Ministry
European Union

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