LONDON, March 24 -- Fast food chain McDonald's banned the sale of British beef in its burgers Sunday amid growing panic about a possible link between beef and a human strain of so-called mad cow disease. The company said while it still trusted British beef, a lack of consumer confidence meant it would no longer sell any product that could contain contaminated beef in its British outlets. 'We believe British beef is safe. However, we cannot ignore the fact that recent announcements have led to a growing loss of consumer confidence in British beef which has not been restored,' said Paul Preston, president and chief executive of McDonald's, in a statement. The company said burgers would be off the menu until it could arrange continental deliveries of beef, probably next Thursday. It was yet another blow to Britain's beleaguered 4 billion pound ($6 billion) beef industry, with many countries banning sales of British beef after the government announced last week there was a possible link between mad-cow disease, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, and its human equivalent, Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease, a degenerative brain disease. Leading scientific advisers to the British government were expected to end their two-day meeting Sunday and decide whether children were at risk from the human equivalent of the disease by eating beef products. The government will then make a statement in the House of Commons Monday. Britain's second largest fast-food chain, Burger King, was also expected to decide Monday whether to ban British beef.
The British government said it would accept the scientists' advice even though farmers warned they could face bankruptcy. Economists have said should the nation's 11 million cattle herd have to be slaughtered, the rescue package to farmers could severely effect Britain's balance of payments and lead to a sharp rise in tax. The opposition Labour Party called for selective slaughtering of some 4 million cattle to stop the spread of the disease, which would still cost the industry millions of pounds. The price of government bonds fell last week, and the crisis threatened to rule out tax cuts by the government, which holds a parliamentary majority of only two and must face a general election by May 1997. Meanwhile, it appeared British shoppers were ignoring the government's appeals that beef was safe as sales of meat fell and schools around the country took beef off lunch menus. Adding further to the panic was a report in The Sunday Times that some scientists fear mad cow disease may have been spread to sheep. Oman became the latest country to ban British beef Sunday, further threatening Britain's beef export trade of some 520 million pounds ($780 million) a year. Britain's Consumers' Association said people should remove beef and beef-derived products from their diets if they wanted to exclude all risk of catching mad cow disease. It was Health Secretary Stephen Dorrell who told Parliament last Wednesday that scientists at the CJD Surveillance Unit at Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland, had identified a new strain of CJD in 10 sufferers under age 42. BSE was first identified in 1986, believed to be spread by contaminated cattle feed, and in 1988 the government decided to slaughter and incinerate all cows suspected of having BSE. Countries that have banned British beef imports include: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, France, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Netherlands, Oman, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and the United States.
