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French mad cow disease cases
went undetected
By Kim Willsher in
Paris
(Filed: 04/07/2004)
A mad cow disease epidemic in France went completely
undetected and led to almost 50,000 severely infected animals
entering the food chain, according to a shocking report by French
government researchers.
More than 300,000 cows contracted BSE (bovine
spongiform encephalopathy) in the past 13 years, 300 times more than
the number of officially recorded cases, say researchers at France's
official Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm).
Their report reveals that while blustering French
politicians blamed Britain for the emergence of the disease - and
attempted to create a cordon sanitaire by banning imports of British
beef - they failed to adopt measures to prevent a hidden epidemic at
home.
Only in June 1996 was potentially dangerous bovine
offal banned in France, almost seven years after Britain. Just four
years ago, as France ignored a European Union ruling that British
beef was safe again, infected cattle were still entering the food
chain, the researchers say.
Their disturbing findings are contained in a report,
The Unrecognised French BSE Epidemic, published in the international
scientific review Veterinary Research.
Their report came as Paris officials revealed the
death of a 55-year-old Frenchman believed to have suffered from
variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (vCJD), the human form of BSE. If
confirmed, the death would bring to seven the number of confirmed
French victims of the disease.
"We estimate that 301,200 cows in France were
infected by BSE between 1980 and June 2000," conclude the authors of
the report, Virginie Supervie and Dominique Costagliola. "There is
uncertainty about estimates of the number of cases in the early
1980s, but the level of animals infected climbed between 1987 and
1990 and dropped from then until 1992.
"Furthermore, 47,300 animals at an advanced stage of
the disease entered into the food chain before 1996, and 1,500
between July 1996 and June 2000." According to previous official
figures there were just 103 confirmed cases of the disease between
1991 and 2000, during which period the government relied on farmers
and veterinarians to report animals with BSE.
Since 2000, when controls were tightened, a further
820 cases have been confirmed, according to figures published last
month, bringing the total to 923 over the past 13 years - a tiny
fraction of the total estimated in the new report.
The report's authors drew on data about BSE cases in
cattle and facts about the spread of the disease to calculate the
likely true extent of the BSE epidemic in France. Dominique
Costagliola said: "The French authorities have known for some time
that the official statistics were not a true reflection of the
epidemic." British cattle feed containing the rendered carcasses of
other animals - alleged to have caused the disease - was sold in
France until 1989. That was three years after the first case of BSE
was discovered in Britain, where farmers were required to report all
cattle showing symptoms. In 1989 Britain banned the use of animal
protein in cattle food, outlawed bovine offal in human food and
introduced a mass slaughter plan under which entire herds of an
animal showing symptoms of BSE were destroyed.
France banned the suspect cattle feed the following
year and required farmers and vets to report animals suspected of
having the disease. Its first reported case was in 1991. The
discovery of an apparent link between BSE and its human equivalent,
vCJD, was made in 1996 and led to a worldwide ban on British beef.
The ban was lifted by the EU 1999 but illegally maintained by France
until 2002. Yet it was not until 2001 that France introduced
compulsory tests for BSE in cows, older than 24 months, sent for
slaughter.
The report's authors conclude that the disease was
prevalent in French herds during the 1980s, but that the epidemic
went completely unnoticed. "Only the second wave, after 1990, was
observed," they write.
The editors of Veterinary Research were so disturbed
when they received the report that they asked three independent
scientists to evaluate its findings. All three concurred that the
basis for the calculations was correct.
Joelle Charley-Poulain, a joint editor of the
magazine, said: "I was very perturbed when I first read the article.
I was worried that these figures would alarm the public, which is
why we had them checked out by three specialists."
In Britain, where there are estimated to have been
four million BSE infected cows compared with 200,000 officially
reported cases, researchers have long claimed that France
underestimated the number of contaminated cattle.
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