UK threatens to step up beef war

Britain yesterday renewed its threat to escalate the "beef war" by blocking beef imports from Europe unless Continental abattoir standards are raised as a guard against "mad cow disease", or BSE. The warning came from Jack Cunningham, the Minister of Agriculture, at a meeting of European Union farm ministers, at which he repeated his vow to stop imports from the Continent after 22 July if they do not tighten meat processing and inspection standards.

Dr Cunningham first declared his intention to impose the ban at the start of this month, when he said he would act based on scientific advice from Seac, the advisory body on BSE and related diseases. Seac suggested that the same strict measures should be required of imported beef as on domestic beef - where the heads, spines and other organs are removed in the abattoir and destroyed. Many European countries do not follow the same practice, arguing that they have no cases of BSE. Charles Arthur