SIGHTINGS


 
Mad Cow - $600,000 Spent To
Slaughter British Cattle
2-12-99
 
LONDON (AFP) - The expense of slaughtering cattle aged over 30 months considered at risk of having "mad cow" disease came to $600 million in 1998-99, the government said here Thursday.
 
The plan was carried out to rid Britain of cattle most likely to contract bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or "mad cow disease."
 
Secretary of State for Agriculture Jeff Rooker told the House of Commons in a written answer that $407 million had gone to breeders, with 20 percent coming from the European Union.
 
The difference of about $193 million covered the cost of slaughter and elimination of the cattle carcasses.
 
The European Commission in 1996 declared an embargo on the sale of British beef, to prevent BSE being transmitted to humans in the form of the deadly brain disorder, Creutzfeldt-Jakob's disease.
 
The embargo is to be lifted only after a European inspection mission gives the go-ahead.





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