Leading Article: British beef at home and abroad

GERMANY's cabinet was right yesterday not to impose an immediate ban on British beef. In a single European market, such unilateral barriers are not only illegal but also unwise. Import bans imposed without good reason can too easily degenerate into a game of protectionist tit-for-tat. When the ban is backed by clear vested interests - farmers who wish to keep their competitors out, and politicians trying to repair their authority after a recent scandal involving HIV-contaminated blood - it is doubly wise to be suspicious.

Yet the broader issues surrounding 'mad cow' disease should not be dismissed. Among Germany's environmentally aware consumers, there is widespread concern that British beef is dangerous. Exports to Germany are negligible; but if this concern spreads to France and other EU countries, the effect on British farmers could be damaging. Should the authorities in Britain be taking the matter more seriously than they have so far?

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, first identified in 1985, is thought to have sprung up because cows were fed on ground-up bits of dead sheep. A link between BSE and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a similar but extremely rare brain disease in humans, has been suggested, but no evidence found.

To guard against any risk to human health, the Government has paid for the destruction of 126,000 cattle, and has banned the sale for human consumption of cows' brains, spleen and other kinds of offal. Against British objections, the European Union has gone further - banning the export from the UK of live cattle more than six months old, and live calves of BSE- infected cows.

Germans who want their government to take tougher measures - such as a ban on animal exports from areas where BSE has been reported in the past four years - admit that there are no formal grounds for worry. Since it would take 10 years for any meat-linked brain disease to show up in humans, they merely want to play safe.

As more is learnt about the two diseases, the EU's farm council may well have to set more stringent Europe-wide rules. But any such new rules must be based on proper scientific evidence, and they must cover all EU citizens - including Britons. Meat that is not safe enough to export is too dangerous to eat at home.