'Mad Cow Disease' scare leaves British beef sales depressed
By Ken Krizner, Senior Editor
British meat supplier Sims Food Group of London is getting out of the fresh red meat business. It will concentrate on turkey production and cooked meats.
The reason for the company's decision is based entirely on the biggest food scare in Britain in more than 20 years, which has caused a 25 percent decrease in beef sales since December.
Nearly 10 years ago, veterinarians began diagnosing British cows with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), otherwise known as "mad cow disease." Since then, more than 130,000 cows have died from BSE. The British government contends the disease is caused by a processed animal feed cake containing scraps of meat and bone meal from sheep and cows. It said scrapie, a neurological disease in sheep similar to BSE, had been transmitted to cows.
In the past decade, BSE outbreaks have occurred in France, Ireland, Oman, Portugal and Switzerland. But those outbreaks were not as severe as in Britain.
Cows that contract BSE lose coordination, become apprehensive, suffer drops in milk yield and show excessive sensitivity to stimulation. When they die from the always-fatal disease, their brains are found to be spongy and filled with holes. In the past three years, four dairy farmers have died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), which is similar to BSE. There is no known cause or cure for CJD.
Despite government scientists insisting that there is no link between BSE and CJD, British consumers are abstaining from beef in fear of contracting CJD.
This comes on the heels of a per capita decrease of beef for nearly a decade. Beef consumption in Britain was at 34.1 pounds in 1995, compared with 44.2 pounds in 1987.
Several deaths among farmers and teen-agers attributed to CJD in December, and a warning by a prominent neuropathologist against eating beef, spurred a hysteria that in the past three months has resulted in:
-- More than 1,000 British schools removing beef and beef products from their cafeteria menus.
-- Hospitals refusing to include beef in patients' meals.
-- A bakery chain banning British beef from its meat pies.
-- Three German provinces banning British beef imports.
-- A rise in consumption of chicken, venison and other meats.
"There is no scientifically valid evidence that BSE can infect humans," said J. Ralph Blanchfield, a food science, food technology and food law consultant, and past president of London-based Institute of Food Science & Technology.
Then why the scare? Blanchfield put some of the blame on the media.
"Alarmist speculation and assertions by some, amplified by the media, have played on public fears. In particular, the fear that because of the long incubation period [of the disease], consumers are eating beef from cattle, apparently fit to buy, but actually infected," Blanchfield said. "One recent newspaper article had the headline: 'On average, we've eaten 80 meals of contaminated beef each.' "
Add to that a statement by Sir Bernard Tomlinson, a leading neuropathologist, who said he no longer eats hamburgers or anything containing cattle offal because he cannot discount BSE being transmitted to humans, and a scare can take root. "Despite research evidence that beef muscle from infected cattle cannot carry the ineffective agent, media scare stories have caused a decline in beef consumption," Blanchfield added.
Countering to the scare
The British Agricultural Ministry recently released research conducted by a London hospital indicating humans cannot develop Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease by eating BSE-infected beef.
In infected animals, an agent known as a "prion" causes proteins made by the gene PrP to change shape. This causes nerve cells to break apart.
Professor John Collinge of St. Mary's Hospital Medical School used genetically engineered mice that had been given the human version of PrP in his experiments. Collinge injected BSE-infected material into the brains of the mice and found they did not develop the disease.
BSE is also unlikely to appear in the United States, officials from USDA and FDA said. They indicated that healthy environments and safe feed for animals at the producer level keeps the possibility of cattle contracting BSE minimal. In addition, the United States does not import beef from Britain.
But Blanchfield said that the perception that BSE can be contracted is always possible. "Food scares can happen anywhere, anytime," he added. "Once started, they seem to have an unstoppable momentum."
Controlling BSE
Here are the steps suggested by London-based Institute of Food Science & Technology for controlling a potential epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, otherwise known as "mad cow disease."
-- Destroy animals diagnosed on the farm.
-- Prohibit the feeding of material containing animal protein derived from ruminants to cattle and other ruminants.
-- Destroy carcasses of cattle affected with BSE.
-- Destroy milk from cattle suspected of having BSE.
-- Extend the list of offals banned for use in the human food chain to cover a wider range of potentially ineffective materials.
-- Extend slaughterhouse requirements to tighten controls.
-- Place stricter controls on animal feedstuffs.