Chirac Urges Steps on Mad Cow Disease

President Jacques Chirac urged drastic new precautions against mad cow disease, and a top health official predicted that more people will die as France’s proud culinary tradition took a hammering. Chirac called on the government to suspend immediately the use of meat and bone meal in all animal feed amid growing anxiety about the spread of the cattle illness. Junior Health Minister Dominique Gillot said cases of a new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease were expected to rise from the current two confirmed deaths to dozens.