Poland to widen beef import ban
Poland is inching toward introducing a ban on the use of animal feed containing bone meal following the latest outbreak of "mad cow" disease in Western Europe.
In an effort to halt the disease, scientifically known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), from spreading east across the Odra River, early last week Poland widened its ban on imports of beef to include Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. This move follows the recent discovery of cows infected with the disease in Germany and brings to 10 the total number of countries prohibited from importing beef to Poland. Poland had previously banned beef imports from the U. K., Ireland, France, Switzerland and Portugal.
But in the face of waning public confidence in food safety, authorities are looking for ways to keep Poland's herds BSE-free. After extending the ban on beef imports, last week the government formed a commission made up of officials from the Agriculture Ministry; veterinary, sanitary and trade inspection services; and border guard and customs offices to develop a plan to protect farm animals from contracting BSE.
Amid calls in Germany and other European Union countries to ban the use of meat and bone meal in animal feed, Poland's chief sanitary inspector, Pawel Policzkiewicz, last week called for a similar ban to be implemented in Poland.
But Policzkiewicz's move may have been a solitary act. Poland's chief veterinary inspector, Andrzej Komorowski, fell short of backing an all out ban.
"This is a difficult issue and there is no one answer," Komorowski said. "I recommended that the agriculture minister undertake efforts to create alternative systems of feeding animals using other sources of protein."
Animal feed made from meat and bone meal is widely considered by experts as the most likely cause of BSE in farm animals. BSE has been linked to the degenerative Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, which has led to the death of more than 80 people in Britain and two in France.
The low use of meat and bone meal based feed makes Poland a low-risk country as far as the spread of BSE is concerned, according to Komorowski. "Since we haven't had any case of the illness, we can say that the country is free from this illness and the level of risk is not high," he said.
But the discovery of mad cow disease next door in Germany, a country long considered BSE-free, have led to calls for the government to introduce a total ban on serving farm animals feed with meat and bone meal additives. According to Janusz Jedrzejczak, an organic farmer in Poreby near Wroclaw, who also specializes in animal husbandry, BSE's long incubation period means that the country's veterinary inspectors should move now to further reduce Poland's risk of losing its BSE-free status. "Certainly, the risk is lower here, but it still exists," Jedrzejczak said. "We are afraid that the disease could appear here in a few years time."
The meat and bone meal that Polish farmers do use in feed is largely imported from Western Europe. In the first 10 months of this year, Poland imported roughly 277 thousand tons of meat and bone meal, largely from Germany and Holland. In 1999, less than 300 thousand tonnes of meat and bone meal were imported to the country. In contrast, Poland exports roughly 2,000 tonnes of meat and bone meal annually.
