- Hello Jeff - I dug up this article from year 2000 to
show that France admitted in that year that there were 50,000 mysterious
cattle deaths a year and the fear at that time was an epidemic of nvCJD.
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- One estimate puts the 2000 cattle census at 2.9 million
cattle in France.
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- My guess is that the estimated 300,000 BSE/Mad Cow cattle
in France is *extremely* conservative.
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- Patricia Doyle
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- France Gripped By Fear Of Death From Mad Cow
Disease
- By Chris Marsden
WSWS.org
11-9-00
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- There is growing public concern that France could face
an epidemic of the deadly brain-wasting disease variant Creutzfeldt Jacobs
Disease (vCJD), the human form of BSE or Mad Cow Disease.
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- Two people have died of CJD in France"much less
than the 80 fatalities in Britain but still the second highest in the world.
So far this year more than 80 cases of BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy)
have been diagnosed, more than twice as many as the 31 cases last year.
More worrying still the government admits there are 50,000 "mysterious
deaths in cattle every year.
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- In response to growing criticism, the government tightened
safety checks and testing of cattle in June. But this failed to allay the
fears of French families because of high profile reports of cheating by
some cattle dealers and breeders.
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- Some of France's most popular supermarket chains, led
by Carrefour, recently admitted that a tonne of BSE-infected meat had been
sold to customers after it got through the safety checks at an abattoir.
Around 10 makers of tripe and animal feed received offal and meat products
from the same BSE-tainted herd. This week a father and son were arrested
after trying to sell a BSE infected cow for slaughter.
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- In consequence, beef consumption has plummeted. The national
restaurant chain Buffalo Grill withdrew beef on the bone from its menus
and butchers and some other restaurants followed suit. Beef has been removed
from kindergarden and school menus throughout Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse,
Caen and Cherbourg.
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- Abattoirs have registered a 30 to 50 percent drop in
beef sales, while supermarkets say that sales are down by between 25-40
percent. Michel Prost, director of meat and livestock cooperatives' federation
FNCBV, estimates beef sales were down by 15 percent in butchers' shops
and prices for beef carcasses have fallen by at least 10 percent.
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- The government has attempted to reassure the public that
it is combating the problem, but with little success.
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- Agriculture Minister Jean Glavany told the media that
it was discussing the possibility of the total removal of the spinal column
of cattle from the food chain with the food safety authority AFSSA, because
it is believed to be the most infective tissue. It has also asked AFSSA
to investigate the possible dangers presented by beef on the bone.
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- Gaullist President Jacques Chirac deepened the crisis
facing the Socialist Party government of Lionel Jospin, when he demanded
an immediate end to sales of meat and bone meal from the carcasses of cows
for use as feed for poultry and pigs. Feed containing cow remains is already
banned for use in cattle, but permitted for other species.
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- Public confidence in the government's reassurances was
further undermined by the admission of Junior Health Minister Dominique
Gillot, who admitted on November 7, "With the number of cases of mad
cow disease increasing in France, it is very probable that we are going
to see several dozen cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob... We've got to be prepared
for that.
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- Gillot said that a third case of vCJD in a young man
was "very probable". The number of people displaying symptoms
of the disease was already on the rise, she said.
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- The economic consequences of the question mark now placed
over France's beef industry are potentially disastrous. France is Europe's
biggest beef exporter and led the campaign to bar British beef from Europe
because of the risk from BSE. Now a ban on French beef has been imposed
by Hungary and Poland, while Russia has stopped imports of cattle from
western parts of France that are deemed most at risk from BSE.
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- Farmers have called for an aid package from the government
to save them from bankruptcy, with the head of the FNSEA farmers' union,
Luc Guyau, warning that, "We are on the edge of a precipice... Some
farmers could be driven to suicide."
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- Cases of BSE have also been reported in Belgium, Denmark,
Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and Ireland
"with the latter three countries admitting to the highest incidence
after Britain. In August this year an Italian man died of vCJD in a Rome
hospital.
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- http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/nov2000/fbse-n09.shtml
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- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD Please visit my "Emerging
Diseases" message board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?
Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
Go with God and in Good Health
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