EU calls for measures to secure safety from mad cow disease

Japan Policy & Politics, Sept 17, 2001

BRUSSELS, Sept. 10 Kyodo

The European Commission said Monday that any country can be exposed to the danger of mad cow disease and called on countries to draw up legislation or take administrative measures to secure the safety of their citizens.

Beate Gminder, a spokeswoman for the Brussels-based executive body of the 15-member European Union (EU), made the remark in reference to Monday's report over the discovery in Japan of a cow suspected of being infected with mad cow disease, the first such finding in Japan.

Gminder stopped short of offering tips for Japan on how to cope with the case, but only said it is important for countries to ban the use of meat-based animal feed and the marketing of internal organs or meat with bones.

''There's no need for Japanese people to panic,'' Gminder told a news conference. ''It's very difficult to say something because it is not yet confirmed that the cow is ill.''

EU member states have suffered serious damage from mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), with more than 100 people killed in Britain and France and fears over the disease spreading across Europe.

''It was very positive that the suspected cow was found (in Japan) since it is a sign of active surveillance and good monitoring (by the Japanese government),'' Gminder said.

In a report compiled earlier this year, the EU had said it is possible that mad cow disease might be found in Japan, but the Japanese agriculture ministry denied the report saying there is ''a high level of safety in Japan.''

Mad cow disease was first confirmed in Britain in 1986. The disease is thought to cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), the fatal human equivalent of BSE.

Cows infected with the disease usually die in two weeks to six months after developing symptoms, such as walking abnormalities, and the incubation period is about two years.