Germany will step up research into mad cow disease in view of public concern about infected beef, its new minister for agriculture and consumer protection vowed today.
"We currently have far too little knowledge about the infection's transmission," said Renate Kuenast, appointed last week after two of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's ministers resigned over the country's BSE crisis.
"In addition, reliable tests are a long way off," she told Central German Radio.
The German Defence Ministry said today the army was destroying stocks of troop rations containing meat and sausage that were produced before the start of October.
Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping's order also gives everyone in the armed forces the right to be served beef-free meals, a ministry spokesman said.
Germany's farm lobby has reacted warily to the appointment of Kuenast, an urban lawyer from the environmentalist Greens party, to a post traditionally filled by male farmers.
Schroeder gave her revamped farm ministry far-reaching consumer safety powers.
The European Union's top health official, David Byrne, expressed alarm about a BSE case discovered in a German animal younger than 30 months, the newspaper Bild am Sonntagreported.
In a letter received by German officials, he said cases in such young cows so far have been discovered only in Britain, where the disease reached "epidemic proportions," the newspaper said. EU countries this month began requiring all cattle older than 30 months to be proven free from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) before the beef can be sold.
EU spokesman Gilles Gantelet said Byrne had written to all 15 EU governments asking for a status report, two weeks after they stepped up testing of slaughtered cattle for signs of BSE.
Germany has recorded 13 BSE cases since first confirming the disease in November. AP