March 6, 2006

EU likely to end UK beef ban next week

A 10-year European Union ban on British beef due to mad cow disease may be removed next week, an EU official said on Friday.

The vote will be by qualified majority and the executive European Commission is confident that Britain can answer any concerns other member states may have.

The beef export ban was imposed at the peak of the 1990s mad cow scare.

Europe's outbreaks of the disease caused panic in the 1990s with 184,000 cases registered in Britain by 2004. About 150 people have died, mostly in Britain, from the human form of the disease after eating tainted meat.

However, Britain's number of BSE cases has fallen to 343 in 2004, in part due to the EU's ban on animal parts from feed and its tightened food safety laws.

In December, veterinary experts from at least 10 EU countries supported the removal of the ban after Britain presented its latest BSE update.

The exact date that British beef could be seen on supermarket shelves across the EU remains uncertain.