EU rejects German call to boycott British lamb .
Peter Blackburn
BRUSSELS 1996-08-22
The European Commission said on Thursday it disagreed with German advice to consumers to shun British lamb until scientists determine whether mad cow disease can be transmitted to sheep .
Germany 's representative to the European Union 's veterinary committee Werner Zwingmann said on Wednesday consumers should buy sheepmeat from countries other than Britain until the scientific advice was clearer .
" We do n't support any such recommendation because we do n't see any grounds for it , " the Commission 's chief spokesman Nikolaus van der Pas told a news briefing .
He said further scientific study was required and if it was found that action was needed it should be taken by the European Union .
He said a proposal last month by EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler to ban sheep brains , spleens and spinal cords from the human and animal food chains was a highly specific and precautionary move to protect human health .
Fischler proposed EU-wide measures after reports from Britain and France that under laboratory conditions sheep could contract Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy ( BSE ) -- mad cow disease .
But Fischler agreed to review his proposal after the EU 's standing veterinary committee , mational animal health officials , questioned if such action was justified as there was only a slight risk to human health .
Spanish Farm Minister Loyola de Palacio had earlier accused Fischler at an EU farm ministers ' meeting of causing unjustified alarm through " dangerous generalisation . "
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Only France and Britain backed Fischler 's proposal .
The EU 's scientific veterinary and multidisciplinary committees are due to re-examine the issue early next month and make recommendations to the senior veterinary officials .
Sheep have long been known to contract scrapie , a brain-wasting disease similar to BSE which is believed to have been transferred to cattle through feed containing animal waste .
British farmers denied on Thursday there was any danger to human health from their sheep , but expressed concern that German government advice to consumers to avoid British lamb might influence consumers across Europe .
" What we have to be extremely careful of is how other countries are going to take Germany 's lead , " Welsh National Farmers ' Union ( NFU ) chairman John Lloyd Jones said on BBC radio .
Bonn has led efforts to protect public health after consumer confidence collapsed in March after a British report suggested humans could contract an illness similar to mad cow disease by eating contaminated beef .
Germany imported 47,600 sheep from Britain last year , nearly half of total imports .
It brought in 4,275 tonnes of British mutton , some 10 percent of overall imports .