Mad Cow Milk

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> Headline: EU says ``mad cow'' milk should not be drunk

> Wire Service: RTw (Reuters World Report)

> Date: Tue, Mar 23, 1999

>

> Copyright 1999 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved.

> The following news report may not be republished or redistributed, in

> whole

> or in part, without the prior written consent of Reuters Ltd.

>

> BRUSSELS, March 23 (Reuters) - Milk from cattle with " mad cow

> disease " should not be used for human consumption, though there is no

> evidence that it is infectious, the European Union's top scientists said

> on Tuesday.

> The Scientific Steering Committee, the EU's top advisory committee on

> health matters, said there was no evidence that BSE (bovine spongiform

> encephalopathy) could be passed on through drinking milk.

> But it recommended that milk from BSE-infected animals should be

> destroyed " as a precautionary measure " to stop it entering the human and

> animal food chain. It may be used to feed the cow's own calf or for

> research, the committee said.

> " We already have a recommendation in force which ensures that the

> consumer would never get this milk, " said European Commission spokesman

> Pietro Petrucci.

> " This new data will be considered by the Commission and amendments

> will be made to the rules if changes are needed, " Petrucci added.

> European beef consumption slumped in March 1996 after the British

> government announced a probable link between BSE and Creutzfeldt-Jakob

> Disease, its human equivalent.

> Some 30 people have died of the new variant of CJD linked to eating

> beef from cattle infected with BSE.

> The committee said calves from cows with BSE were five to 15 percent

> more likely to catch the disease themselves, but this was probably not

> linked to milk, but to other means of " vertical " transmission.

> Britain, which has had the lion's share of the 175,000 recorded cases

> of BSE, already bans the sale of milk from infected cows.

> Separately, the committee also recommended a ban on using the remains

> of animals which have died due to unidentified reasons for manufacturing

> cosmetics and medicines.

> So-called " fallen animals " include everything from pigs to cats. The

> committee said they should be " incinerated or burned after rendering and

> not be recycled for any direct or indirect use, " in case they died of BSE

> or a similar disease.