EU Commissioner confirms BSE could be transmitted via contaminated water table

By imposing a six-month ban on meat-and-bonemeal (MBM) on Monday night, extending BSE testing and establishing a "purchase for destruction" scheme for cattle older than 30 months, EU agriculture ministers hoped to reassure consumers it was safe to eat beef.

But Dr Franz Fischler, the EU Commissioner for Agriculture, was far from convincing at a press conference to explain the measures.

The Commissioner, who is Austrian, confirmed scientific reports that BSE could be transmitted when the excrement of infected animals entered the water table.

"The BSE agent is very resistant . . . One cannot exclude that the disease goes from one animal to another via the water table," Dr Fischler admitted. If MBM was cut out of the animals' diet, the problem was over, he added.

But what about contamination already in the water table? "You have to clean the water table," he responded.

There was the spectre of "spontaneous mutation". Scientists who studied the evolution of BSE in Britain concluded that the main cause of the disease was the use of MBM, Dr Fischler said. "But the source of the disease can also be a spontaneous mutation which can appear anywhere."

This was why the Commission extended its measures to countries like Sweden and Italy, which have had no BSE cases. "If you don't detect BSE, it doesn't mean automatically that there is no BSE there," he added.

The Commissioner's response to questions about responsibility for the crisis were equally disquieting. "It doesn't help at all if we state that our citizens are hysterical," he said. "It doesn't make sense to send blame from the Commission to the memberstates and from the memberstates back to the Commission."

There is concern in developing countries that the BSE epidemic will spread there. An Indian journalist asked if the EU envisaged testing outside its borders. "It is not my job," Dr Fischler replied.

A reporter from Mali wanted to know if the EU would take responsibility for propagating the disease around the world. "I have said that scientists say that a possible source is spontaneous mutation, that is to say a genetic change in animals. This means it can happen everywhere, not that it will spread out from Europe," Mr Fischler replied.

Under the six-year Agenda 2000 agreed in Berlin last year, the Agriculture Commissioner has a €1.23 billion "flexibility margin" to finance the EU's new measures. He prefers the "purchase for destruction" scheme to price support for cattle because it is cheaper to kill animals, render them and incinerate the resulting MBM than subsidise their testing for BSE and possible sale.

The other condition of meeting the budget was that the drop in beef consumption not exceed 10 per cent in 2001. Yet consumption has already dropped 50 per cent in some EU countries.