Mad cow disease may have reached Estonia

TALLINN - Mad-cow disease may have already reached Estonia from imported feed deliberately mislabeled as fish-based cattle food, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

The ministry confirmed the theory printed in the Estonian weekly newspaper Maaleht on Feb. 15 that products containing bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad-cow disease, could have reached Estonia illegally in the form of fake, supposedly fish-based fodder. It is illegal to import into Estonia fodder made from cattle as it may contain BSE, but feed made from ground fish is legal.

"To get rid of huge quantities of meat and bone meal currently waiting in European warehouses to be destroyed, it may be imported under the name of fish meal," the head of the ministry's veterinary and food department, Hendrik Kuusk, told Maaleht.

To make meat and bone meal appear to be fish meal, an aromatic agent is added and distinguishing between the two requires expensive lab tests, according to agriculture officials.

The chemical used to create the fish aroma is imported from Denmark and is designed to be used as a cat food additive.

Kuusk said the chemical is also added to locally produced meat and bone meal which is then sold as feed to farmers.

Since Feb. 1, an Agriculture Ministry decree has banned since Feb. 1 feeding both meat and bone meal and fish meal to cattle, though it is still legal to feed the same meal to pigs.

But ministry officials have also said that the controversy surrounding mad cow disease should not dissuade people from eating beef.

"Properly processed beef is absolutely safe, besides, the BSE bacteria can be present only in specific parts of the animal, such as the brain, eyes, tonsils, spinal cord and intestines," explained Kuusk.

No cases of mad-cow disease have been detected in the Baltic states, representatives of the three countries' veterinary and food authorities confirmed at a recent meeting in Tallinn.

Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia began taking precautionary measures in 1990 by banning the import of animals and animal products from countries where mad-cow disease had been diagnosed in the preceding five years.

Beginning on Feb.14 importing of cattle embryos, mutton and goat meat from countries where confirmed cases of mad-cow disease have been found in the last five years was also banned.

According to the Agriculture Ministry, the 503 cattle imported to Estonia between 1989 and 2000 from countries where mad-cow disease was diagnosed were later individually checked and registered.

The mad-cow controversy, however, is already benefiting poultry producers like Tallegg, which predicts a substantial growth in exports to Latvia and Lithuania and plans to increase production capacity by half.

"Mad-cow disease has brought about a change in the proportion of demand and supply in the fowl market," Tallegg CEO Ants Kasper told the online version of the daily Postimees. "Right now we're unable to produce as much as we could sell."

The firm takes 20 tons of chicken and by-products to Latvia three times a week and about 10 tons to Lithuania, Kasper said.

Last year exports accounted for roughly 15 percent of Tallegg's chicken sales. But in January exports to Latvia and Lithuania made up 36 percent of total chicken sales.