BSE cases in Europe go unreported

26 August 1997

BSE cases in Europe go unreported

MAD cow disease is not just a British problem, say three leading European vets – and mainland European countries have only reported one-sixth of their BSE cases.

Many of the worst offenders appear to be countries where the campaigns against British beef have been the strongest since March last year.

Working on the basis of numbers of cattle exported to Europe from the UK before the EU anti-BSE ban, the experts say that there should have been over 1,600 cases of the disease in mainland EU countries by now. Only 285 have been reported.