French probe BSE import rumours

18 January 2001



French probe BSE import rumours

By FWi staff

FRENCH police are investigating whether government officials knowingly allowing imports of contaminated cattle feed into France from Britain.

Government ministries for food, public health and consumer affairs were raided on Wednesday (17 January), according to media reports.

The raid follows an inquiry which was launched last month into a complaint by two families of victims of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

It aims to establish whether officials were responsible for “the involuntary causing of death” or “knowingly exposing others to life-threatening risk”.

Claimants believe that British, French and EU authorities allowed potentially contaminated feed from Britain into France between 1988 and 1996.

They claim this caused the British BSE epidemic to spread to French cattle.