The Commission has agreed to ask its multi-disciplinary committee on mad cow disease to examine a study by British scientists

Date: 19/09/1996

which suggests BSE will die out within five years, even without cull. The study has been seized on by the UK to argue for a reduction in the selective beef cull agreed under the Florence framework for lifting the export ban. The move, seen as an attempt by the Commission to head off a fresh crisis over BSE, follows the distinctly frosty reception given to the UK's call for a lower cull at a meeting of EU farm ministers this week, when Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler stressed the slaughter programme formed an integral part of the framework and Belgian Farm Minister Karel Pinxten suggested that if London reneged on the deal, EU funding for the cull could be stopped. The UK's hopes of concessions from its EU partners were dealt a fresh blow yesterday (18 September) when a former chief scientific adviser to the British government said a full cull on the scale agreed in Florence was the only way to be sure of eradicating the disease.