DATE=11/28/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=EUROPE / MAD COW (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-269773

BYLINE=LAURIE KASSMAN

DATELINE=LONDON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Europe is gripped by fears of contaminated beef products as more cases of Bovine-Spongiform-Encephalopathy or B-S-E are detected. Germany is considering a ban on animal-based feed that experts say could spread B-S-E. The human variant of the so-called mad cow disease already has claimed scores of victims in Britain, where it was first diagnosed 15 years ago. Correspondent Laurie Kassman sums up the latest from London.

TEXT: Germany's lawmakers are due to approve a law that bans animal-based feed for cattle after B-S-E cases were detected last week in German herds.

Scientists and health officials say the use of contaminated meat and bone meal in animal feed could spread B-S-E disease.

Germany has joined other European Union neighbors now facing consumer fright over mad cow disease, which has been detected in several E-U herds in recent weeks.

Britain may have escaped the recent scare but officials are well aware of the political and financial fallout from mad cow disease. Thousands of British cows were slaughtered after the disease was first detected there in 1986. Britain also banned animal-based feed to prevent the spread of B-S-E.

British beef was taken off the shelves in most European markets in 1996 after it was revealed that mad cow disease could be transmitted to humans. The human variant, known by the initials C-J-D, claimed more than 80 lives in Britain before it was brought under control.

France still bans British beef products even though other European Union neighbors have agreed to restock them. But French beef sales now have dropped 40 percent after officials recently discovered meat from a B-S-E infected French herd had been sold in supermarkets.

Mad cow disease also has been detected in Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. And that has sparked fears that contaminated feed and meat products may also have been distributed beyond E-U borders.

Poland now has banned beef exports from several E-U members. So have Estonia, Jordan and Brazil, among others.

E-U agriculture ministers will meet next week to thrash out a common strategy to deal with mad cow disease.

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Italy's Health Minister says all cows there will be tested for B-S-E before they are slaughtered, starting next year. Several E-U governments also may ban animal-based feed to prevent more contamination.

E-U governments are looking at ways to compensate farmers whose incomes have suffered as frightened consumers shun beef products. France already has allocated more than 380-million dollars in emergency aid to farmers. Germany and Spain are considering similar measures. (Signed)

NEB/LMK/GE/PLM