African CJD death prompts feed fear

11 December 2000



African CJD death prompts feed fear

By FWi staff

CONTAMINATED feed exports from Britain could have led to the first non-European death from the human form of BSE, reports The Independent.

South African Ronel Eckard, 35, who died in July, appears to have picked up variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease from eating hamburgers, says the newspaper.

As she had never travelled abroad, suspicion has fallen on whether the meat was infected with BSE from tainted British feed exports.

Britain continued to export feed for eight years after the Government banned bovine meat and bonemeal in cattle feed in 1988.

Shipments went on until 1996 when an EU directive banned all UK exports.

Feed went to countries including the Czech Republic, Nigeria, Thailand, South Africa, Turkey, America, Canada, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.

• Bonemeal ban to cost 100m, FWi, 08 December 2000
• Mass slaughter in mad cow battle, FWi, 05 December 2000
  
• The Independent 11 December 2000 page 1 and 2