German farm ministry tells consumers to avoid British mutton .
BONN 1996-08-22
Germany 's Agriculture Ministry suggested on Wednesday that consumers avoid eating meat from British sheep until scientists determine whether mad cow disease can be transmitted to the animals .
" Until this is cleared up by the European Union 's scientific panels -- and we have asked this to be done as quickly as possible -- ( consumers ) should if at all possible give preference to sheepmeat from other countries , " ministry official Werner Zwingmann told ZDF television .
" I do not want to say that there is a concrete danger for consumers , " he added . "
There are too many holes in what we know , and these must be filled very quickly . "
Bonn has led efforts to ensure consumer protection tops the list of priorities in dealing with the mad cow crisis , which erupted in March when Britain acknowledged humans could contract a similar illness by eating contaminated beef .
The European Commission agreed this month to rethink a proposal to ban the use of suspect sheep tissue after some EU veterinary experts questioned whether it was justified .
EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler had proposed banning sheep brains , spleens and spinal cords from the human and animal food chains after reports from Britain and France that under laboratory conditions sheep could contract Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy ( BSE ) -- mad cow disease .
But some members of the EU 's standing veterinary committee questioned whether the action was necessary given the slight risk to human health .
The question is being studied separately by two EU scientific committees .
Sheep have long been known to contract scrapie , a similar brain-wasting disease to BSE which is believed to have been transferred to cattle through feed containing animal waste .
British officials say sheep meat is perfectly safe to eat .
ZDF said 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 .
After the British government admitted a possible link between mad cow disease and its fatal human equivalent , the EU imposed a worldwide ban on British beef exports .
EU leaders agreed at a summit in June to a progressive lifting of the ban as Britain takes parallel measures to eradicate the disease .