Experts committee advises EU beef sale review

A COMMITTEE of independent veterinary experts which advises the EU, last night acknowledged the need to review Community regulations on the sale of beef.

The group, which reviewed the latest evidence from Britain of a link between BSE and Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD) concluded that the data do not at present provide evidence that BSE is transmissible to man" but recommends a series of unspecified precautionary measures to the Union's Standing Veterinary Committee which meets on Monday. These include measures to exclude from the food chain animals "most likely to have been exposed to infection".

Meanwhile the European Commission has admitted that the 10 EU countries which have now enacted emergency bans on British beef are acting legally.

But, although member states may invoke such emergency bans in the name of public health, they are bound by EU law to respect the Commission's considered position when it takes it next week.

With huge domestic pressure mounting on member states for a permanent ban, the Commission is likely to face a major dilemma in its bid to restore confidence - either it makes tough measures of some kind permanent, further jeopardising British goodwill and the third of its beef production which is sold abroad, or it will face the almost certain prospect of having to initiate litigation against many states which will simply refuse to lift the ban if it is not endorsed.

On Thursday a Commission spokesman had suggested that France's ban was illegal because it had failed to notify the Commission of the move, but he told a news conference yesterday that, after checking the facts, it was now clear that there is no obligation to notify Brussels first.

Such action must be provisional," he said, "pending the conclusions which will be reached by the Scientific Veterinary Committee as to whether European legislation needs to be changed."

The spokesman pledged that the Commission would do all it could to get a quick decision to restore public confidence.

Last night the advisory committee of independent scientists refused to detail publicly its proposed measures but issued a five paragraph statement on its deliberations. The group recognised that "the present EU measures are important in reducing the risk of exposure of man to the agent of BSE." It recommends a short list of improvements to these measures.

"The committee recognises that further reduction of the risk of spread of the BSE agent can be achieved by excluding from the food chain animals most likely to have been exposed to infection and therefore possibly.harbouring infectivity."

The committee urges the immediate stepping up of research into the issue. Its report will go to the Standing Veterinary Committee of experts from each of the member states, which must make a recommendation to the Commission for its meeting on Wednesday. Monday's meeting will take a decision on its opinion by qualified majority vote, but if it fails to agree, an emergency meeting of farm ministers will have to be convened.

Emerging from the scientists' meeting few were prepared to comment at all none on the content of the meeting. The German representative, Dr Kretzmeyer, was prepared, however, to give his personal views of the issue. He said he believed that the 10 British people whose deaths have been tentatively linked to BSE, almost certainly died after ingesting material from the spinal cord or central nervous system and that there was virtually no risk, "perhaps nil", involved in eating a steak.

But even if the risk was small he said, "Germans are not going to accept anything less than an import ban."

Austria, Finland, Germany, Greece and Luxembourg yesterday joined five other EU countries, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden that have already banned British beef imports.

Germany also banned imports from Switzerland, which is not a member of the European Union but has the second highest incidence of BSE disease in Europe after Britain. In Switzerland 206 cows have been diagnosed as suffering from the brain disease since 1990, making it the second most seriously affected country in Europe, although far behind Britain, where nearly 150,000 cases have been reported since 1986.

The ban also widened beyond Europe with South Africa, New Zealand and Singapore taking similar steps.

Meanwhile the Commission is monitoring prices in the beef market closely. If British prices, which are said to have fallen by 25 per cent in the last week, fall to 60 per cent of the intervention price, farmers are entitled to sell into storage - a serious blow to the Commission's beef management policy as there has been no need for intervention for the past two years.

A spokesman yesterday refused to be drawn on whether the Commission is making any plans for alternative forms of support for British farmers. He said that the best hope for countries like Ireland which depended heavily on beef exports was a speedy conclusion and action on the measures that scientists deemed appropriate which could lead to a restoration of confidence among consumers.