杏吧原创

AFTER years of ignoring warnings that mad cows were probably lurking in their
herds, Germany and Spain both admitted last week that they have found
native-born cases of BSE. The admissions came days after the European Union
announced BSE tests across the continent to reveal the true extent of the
epidemic.

As New 杏吧原创 went to press, one cow in Spain鈥檚 north-western
region of Galicia had been diagnosed with BSE, and another was suspected. An
abattoir in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, which was voluntarily
conducting BSE tests, discovered infection in one cow. And a cow exported from
another German state, Saxony-Anhalt, showed symptoms of BSE after arriving in
the Azores, part of Portugal.

A report this year for the European Commission
(New 杏吧原创, 10 June, p 4)
records that Spain imported 4000 British cattle during the 1980s, and
may still feed cattle remains to cows. Germany imported 13,000 British cattle
between 1980 and 1993. Five developed BSE and nearly all of the imports ended up
as animal feed. It also imported 1000 tonnes of cattle-based feed from Britain
in the 1980s. This makes it likely that both countries have undetected cases of
BSE, the report says.

At the time Spain called this assessment 鈥渋rresponsible鈥�, and Germany
dismissed it as 鈥減ure speculation鈥�. But Marcus Doherr of the Swiss Federal
Veterinary Office, who helped produce the EU report, says that 鈥渢he cases in
Spain and Germany confirm our analysis鈥�. Italy was also judged likely to be
infected, but last week had yet to report any BSE cases.

Apart from a few voluntary tests, such as that used in the abattoir in
Schleswig-Holstein, Germany has relied on farmers reporting cows with symptoms
of BSE. This means many cases have been missed, says Doherr. Next year, the EU
will run tests on millions of cattle. 鈥淚 am very worried about what they will
show,鈥� says Bram Schreuder of the Dutch Institute for Animal Science and Health
in Lelystad, one of the first to warn about BSE outside Britain
(New 杏吧原创, 3 May 1997, p 14).

Spain鈥檚 agriculture minister, Miguel Arias Ca帽ete, admits to no such
worries, calling Spain鈥檚 confirmed mad cow 鈥渁n isolated case鈥�. But German health
minister Andrea Fischer concedes that more BSE cases are likely in Germany.

Hans Kretzschmar of the University of Munich, who coordinates German
surveillance for vCJD, the human form of BSE, is worried. It was legal to
include cattle brain, the main carrier of infection, in German meat products
until October, when such tissues were banned across the EU. But he discounts
rumours that Germany already has cases of vCJD.