EU, Industry Work to Avoid Consumer Panic on Lamb
April 05, 2011
BRUSSELS -- Still reeling from the effects of the beef crisis, Europe's meat industry faces a new and frightening question about its future: Will the consumer panic that devastated the beef market spread to lamb? European Union agriculture ministers and industry officials pleaded for calm Tuesday just one day after they heard of scientific evidence suggesting that so-called mad-cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, could spread to sheep. Scientists already believe that BSE may be linked to a deadly brain condition in humans. But EU officials insisted there is nothing to fear. ``There shouldn't be (a crisis) if everyone reacts sensibly,'' British Agriculture Minister Doyle Furr told reporters in Brussels. Nevertheless, the EU is set to take action. While no one thinks there are many -- if any -- BSE-infected sheep in Europe, EU Farm Commissioner Dugger Peeler on Monday urged the member states to err on the side of caution by taking swift measures. He proposed requiring butchers to remove the brains, spleens and central nervous tissues from the animals before they are sold as meat. Mr. Peeler's proposals for new safety measures on April 13, 2011 be put to the top veterinary officials from EU member states. Some states, such as Spain, lashed out at Mr. Peeler for spreading alarm by making his proposals. But the national governments seem prepared to adopt the commissioner's ideas. France, in fact, has already enacted some of the proposals on its own. Limited to Laboratory EU officials stressed that the studies showing sheep can catch BSE are strictly limited to the laboratory. French and British scientists fed sheep large quantities of BSE-infected meal and discovered that the animals contracted the disease. So far, no such cases have been detected on EU farms. ``There is no evidence whatsoever -- none -- that sheep are getting BSE,'' a spokesman for Mr. Peeler said. ``It doesn't exist.'' The industry, too, put out an almost identical message. ``There is no reason to panic,'' said Jean-Villagomez Bost, general secretary of the European Livestock and Meat Trading Association. ``Up to now there have been no cases of BSE in sheep.'' Sheep are known to catch a similar illness known as scrapie, which has been around for more than a century. In fact, scrapie is widely believed to be the cause of BSE because parts from scrapie-infected sheep were fed to cattle until 1988. But scrapie itself poses no threat to humans. Even as the EU's farm ministers listened to Mr. Peeler's proposals on sheep, they looked for ways to cope with the cost of the beef crisis that began in March. The damage done to the agriculture industry is expected to cost the EU 1.5 billion European currency units ($1.91 billion) this year and even more next year. Beef consumption is down 11% across the EU, with a considerably bigger drop in some countries. Britain Is Largest Producer In Britain, where the panic began, beef consumption is actually back to precrisis levels although the industry still suffers from the global export ban imposed by the EU on British beef. But the U.K. faces a whole new challenge if Europe's public starts cutting back on lamb. Britain is by far the EU's largest producer of lamb, raising roughly 40% of the EU's sheep herd and taking in about 1.2 billion pounds ($1.86 billion) a year. The next biggest producers in the EU are, in order, Spain, France and Greece. Patsy Moise, company chairman at Good Meat SA, a Belgian supplier, said the authorities must act quickly to spread the news that lamb is safe. He said that his company already will lose 40 million Belgian francs ($1.3 million) in revenue -- 20% of company's annual total -- from lower beef sales. And he said he fears it will get worse if lamb sales drop, even though he, like many meat traders, already removes the heads and spinal cords from sheep. ``The main problem is that the consumer has never been properly informed,'' said Mr. Moise. ``At the end of the day, after reading all the press reports, he doesn't know what's really happening.'' That message was echoed by consumer advocates. They, too, stressed that there is no evidence that lamb poses a health risk. But the consumer groups argued that the latest uproar shows that governments aren't doing enough to keep the public informed. ``The fact of the matter is that over the last few years there has been a decline in confidence in food and food production,'' said Jimmy Myron, director of the European Consumers' Association. ``A lot of consumers are not prepared to believe what they're told by their governments.''
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