DATE=11/07/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=FRANCE / MAD COW (L-O)

NUMBER=2-268932

BYLINE=PAUL MILLER

DATELINE=PARIS

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: French President Jacques Chirac on Tuesday urged an immediately suspension in the use of meat and bone meal in all animal feed as a precaution against the spread of mad cow disease. His call comes as a government minister is warning that France could face an outbreak of the human version of mad cow disease, known as variant Creuztfeldt-Jacob disease. Paul Miller reports from Paris that public concern about the disease was already increasing, and the latest developments will do little to reassure people.

TEXT: French Health Secretary Dominique Gillot warned that there could be several dozen cases of the human form of mad cow disease known as variant C-J-D.

The minister said in a newspaper interview that 2 people were known to have the disease, a third case was very probable, and others were showing symptoms of the deadly disease, which is believed to be transmitted by eating beef contaminated with mad cow disease.

The number of cattle with mad cow disease has been rising in France despite efforts to control it, including slaughtering entire herds if one animal falls ill.

The French public has been alarmed for the past two weeks, since 3 supermarket chains announced that they had bought beef from a herd with a contaminated animal.

Schools in Paris and several other cities have now removed beef from cafeterias, in response to pressure from parents.

The French government is considering a ban on the sale of beef on the bone - something Britain did during its mad cow outbreak - and a possible ban on any food use of cow spinal columns, which are thought to harbor mad cow disease.

On Tuesday, President Chirac called for an immediate ban on the use of meat and bone meal in feed for any type of animal- meal from ground up animal carcasses is thought to be one way in which mad cow disease can be spread. (SIGNED)

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