49 cattle with BSE in France killed for consumption

At least 49 BSE-infected animals and perhaps as many as 100 were slaughtered in France for human consumption during this year. A new study suggests, however, that if new controls similar to those in Britain were introduced the risk of eating BSE-infected meat would fall considerably.

Estimates of the size of France's problem are published this morning in the science journal Nature. They were completed by Dr Christl A. Donnelly, of Imperial College School of Medicine, who says at least 1,200 French cattle have been infected with BSE since 1987.

The true figure was probably much higher because of underreporting of BSE cases in France, Dr Donnelly writes, and the total could be as high as 7,300. The official French BSE total stands at 143. The total in the Republic is 524 and 177,490 in Britain since 1987.

If France introduced a ban on the consumption of beef from animals older than 30 months, as applies in Britain, and if legislation blocking the use of meat-and-bone meal feeds was enforced there would be "virtually no risk" from eating French beef, the author adds. With these two controls in place, at the very worst no more than two BSE-infected animals might reach the food chain during a given year, she says.