THE British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, said British beef was perfectly safe" and urged Europe not to "panic" over fresh evidence that humans could get a fatal form of "mad cow" disease.
His remarks came after British scientists on Wednesday produced evidence linking a new strain of CJD to BSE or "mad cow disease.
The government's announcement early this year that such a link was possible prompted the EU ban on all British beef exports, which Britain is still trying to have lifted. But the ban will remain following the latest research findings, Agriculture Commissioner Mr Franz Fischler aid yesterday.
"What the British scientists have discovered shows how serious the crisis is," he said. "We must make sure all the measures which have been put in place are maintained, because now we have to face the fact that the disease can be transmitted to people."
He added that the research "shows that the risk of transmission to humans is a fact - it is not the proof, but it is one more proof". Mr Fischler was speaking after briefing a French parliamentary committee on the seven month old European beef crisis.
Meanwhile, Prof John Pattison, chairman of the British Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee, said restrictions on the tainted cattle feed said to cause BSE were sufficient, and he would eat British beef without any reservations".
But he would not rule out the possibility of a CJD epidemic, saying scientists would not know for some time whether people who ate infected beef before the precautions were introduced in 1989 would be affected.