- 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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