France May Have Imported Contaminated Feed

The cows may be mad, but the French are furious: They may have unknowingly imported vast amounts of animal feed banned in Britain for fear it might carry mad cow disease.

The science magazine Nature, citing British government statistics, reported Thursday that Britain sold France thousands of tons of potentially contaminated feed from 1989 to 1991 that it could not sell at home.

France reacted angrily to the British weekly’s report.

“France, the Trash Can of British Groceries,” Paris’ Le Figaro newspaper proclaimed in a headline.

Most of the British feed imported by France--essentially ground-up intestines, brains, spinal cords, bones and other cow parts--was used to feed pigs and chickens, not cows.

But the French government lashed out at what it suggested was a deliberate attempt by Britain to dump feed it was unwilling to use.

“In 1988 and 1989, the Britons didn’t tell us the truth,” said Henri Nallet, France’s agriculture minister at the time, calling it “absolutely scandalous.”

But British officials Thursday defended the exports. In London, the Ministry of Agriculture said the British ban--first imposed in 1988--still permitted exports of pig and chicken feed, and that the European Commission knew about the exports.

London since has expanded the ban to include all animal feed.

British exports of suspect grain and bone meal more than doubled between 1989 and 1991, even though the feed was outlawed at home as concerns mounted over whether mad cow disease could be transmitted to humans, Nature said.

Also, France bought more beef from Britain than usual during that period because two straight years of drought had severely affected French beef production, French agriculture officials said.