Mad cow crisis 'has RI within its reach'

Mad cow crisis 'has RI within its reach'

LONDON (Reuters): Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan and Sri Lanka may become the next victims of mad cow disease after buying potentially tainted animal feed from Britain at the height of the UK epidemic, scientists said on Wednesday.

Britain, which banned the feeding of crushed animal carcasses to cattle in 1986, exported much of its stocks of feed to Europe and beyond until a decade later, when the trade was ended.

Scientists suspect the use of so-called meat and bone meal in feed has spread the deadly brain-wasting disorder, and so UK export data may hold a key to which countries are threatened by bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.

"The countries that stick out because they were importing animal feed at the height of our epidemic in the 1990s are Indonesia, India, Thailand, Taiwan and Sri Lanka. They really stick out a long way," said scientist Iain McGill, who worked at Britain's farm ministry at the height of the BSE crisis.

BSE's spread from Britain to Europe has devastated the beef industries of countries such as France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, all of which imported large amounts of animal feed after UK officials found Britain's first BSE case in 1986.

Indonesia started importing general feedstuffs from Britain in 1991, with the largest consignment of over 20,060 tons in 1993, which compared with less than six tons into badly hit Germany that year, UK customs data showed.

Scientists said the spread of the disease depended on how much meat and bone meal was included in animal feed, and how much was fed to cattle -- but the figures did show the potential reach of mad cow disease.

"It really depends on what has happened to this meat and bone meal, but it's a very, very messy business and a very, very messy trade indeed," McGill said, noting that other EU countries hit by mad cow disease had exported meal and bone meal.

Ralph Blanchfield of the independent UK Institute of Food Science and Technology said no country was safe.

"I don't think any country can say they are 100 percent sure that they are free of BSE," he said.

"You would expect the first cases (in Asian countries) within three or four years but it really depends on how much they are recycling on their own," McGill said, referring to the practice of using domestic cattle carcasses in feed.

"If they are recycling either within a species or between species...then you might expect a peak round about now or in the next few years -- and that depends on looking for it."