HOW does a country know when its cattle are carrying BSE? How can it prove
they are not? These are not trivial questions. It is surprisingly difficult,
especially in big herds, to spot the odd mad cow. When the early signs of BSE
look like those of common ailments, and surveillance depends on farmers
reporting the unusual, it鈥檚 nigh-on impossible. And since discovering BSE can
mean that your nation鈥檚 herds have to be slaughtered and exports shut down,
governments are reluctant to beef up their surveillance.
So the European Commission鈥檚 finding that some apparently BSE-free countries
are probably harbouring the disease is about as welcome as a fox in the hen house
(see 鈥淕lobal infection鈥�).
Among BSE scientists, it has been an open secret for years that
Germany, Italy and Spain are in a state of denial about BSE. It鈥檚 time these
nations ditched their passive surveillance techniques and began to search
actively for BSE and, if needed, take precautions to protect people from the
nasty disease it appears to cause.
As members of the European Union they will in any case be forced by law from
2001 to take active measures to search for the disease. But there鈥檚 no such
compulsion for other countries such as Canada whose position the study has also
thrown into doubt. Indeed, there is no requirement for them even to undertake
risk assessments similar to the Commission鈥檚 study. The Paris-based World
Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) should demand stricter proof for the rest
of the world. After all, the OIE watches for sheep with bluetongue. Eating sheep
infected with bluetongue doesn鈥檛 kill people. Eating mad cows probably does.
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