-Caveat Lector-
Brits Dump Huge
Amounts Of Potential Mad
Cow Feed On Third World
By Anthony Barnett
The Observer - London
http://observer.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,389559,00.html
10-29-00
Britain offloaded tens of thousands of tons of
potentially BSE-infected cattle feed on the Third
World after deciding it was too dangerous to give to
herds in the UK.
The meal and bonemeal was exported after March
1988, when the Government realised that feed
made from slaughtered animals was the probable
cause of the BSE epidemic in UK cattle. In July that
year, the Government banned its use in Britain, and
a week later officially informed the European Union,
then the EEC, of its fears. But it wasn't until March
1996, eight years later, that a worldwide ban on the
export of MBM, as it was called, came into force.
No one knows how many cattle fed on the meal in
those countries may now be incubating BSE.
According to figures released by HM Customs and
Excise, by 1989 the UK was exporting about 25,000
tonnes of MBM to EU countries and about 7,000
tonnes to nations outside Europe mostly in the
Middle East and Africa. By 1991, sales of MBM to
Europe dropped to zero. At the same time exports of
MBM to the Third World had soared to 30,000
tonnes.
Countries that continued to buy British MBM
included Czechoslovakia, Nigeria, Thailand, South
Africa, Kenya, Turkey, Liberia, Lebanon, Puerto
Rico and Sri Lanka.
Memos and minutes uncovered in the BSE inquiry
reveal that the question of whether Britain should
ban exports to non-EU countries led to ministerial
arguments between John MacGregor and John
Gummer inside the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries
and Food as well as a row between MAFF and the
Department of Health.
On 15 June 1989 chief veterinary officer Keith
Meldrum wrote to the president of the British Cattle
Veterinary Association saying: 'We do not consider
it morally indefensible to export meat and bone to
other countries since it may be used for feeding to
pigs and poultry.'
In January 1990, chief medical officer Sir Donald
Acheson wrote to Meldrum warning him of the risks.
He said: 'We should take steps to prevent these UK
products being fed to ruminants in other countries...
Unless such action is taken, the difficult problems
we have faced with BSE may well occur in other
countries. Surely it is short-sighted for us to risk
being seen in future as having been responsible for
the introduction of BSE to the food chain in other
countries.'
Previously in 1998 Gummer, who was a MAFF
Minister at the time, is reported in departmental
minutes as having said the UK had a 'moral
obligation to ensure that importing countries were
aware we did not permit the feeding of these
products to ruminants.'
But MacGregor disagreed. MAFF civil servant
Alistair Cruickshank told the enquiry: 'At the meeting
of 14 April 1988 MacGregor gave no indication that
he agreed with Gummer's suggestion.'
In February 1990, Dr Hilary Pickles, a senior official
in the Department of Health, wrote to the Chief
Medical Officer claiming the Government's
behaviour was not 'responsible'.
She wrote: 'I fail to understand why this cannot be
tackled from the British end.'
Government scientists claim they published
scientific papers about the risks of BSE which
should have warned countries of the risk of feeding
MBM to cattle and raised the issue at the Office
Internationale des Epizooties - the international
organisation concerned with animal health.
Lord Phillips' report does not criticise individuals
and concludes that very few BSE cases have been
reported outside Europe in cattle which have been
fed on British animal feed.
However, a spokesman for the OIE said: 'If MBM
was exported to countries in the Middle East and
Africa and was used to feed cattle then there is a
risk cows will become ill.
'We only hear of BSE cases from countries that
report them so we cannot say for certain that a
country in Africa has not had cases because we
may not have been told about them.'
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