First confirmed case of BSE in Poland
Poland's first case of a cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalitis (BSE) has been detected in a slaughterhouse near Krynica, Małopolska province. All the Baltic states have now banned imports of Polish cattle, beef and meat products based on beef and Central and Eastern Europe may follow suit, although the European Union (EU) is not expected to introduce new restrictions on imports of Polish beef.
The news comes as Polish meat exports to the former Soviet Union were rising and domestic demand for beef was also on the increase. However, the EU had already placed Poland among countries in the "high-risk" group - category three, with four being the highest. Only about 20 meat plants in Poland out of 3,500 still have the right to export beef to the EU’s 15 member states.
Przemysław Chabowski, head of the Polish Union of Meat Producers, Exporters and Importers, said that he believed further outbreaks of BSE were unlikely, but cautioned that cattle imported from Western Europe in the 1990s may have been infected.
It is still not known where the infected cow came from as the trader involved appears to have used false documentation concerning the animal's origin.
