Brussels, 05/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - The "Beef" management committee decided last Friday to ease the conditions from granting animal subsidies (subsidy for maintaining a herd of milking cows, special subsidy from male bovine and compensatory ovine subsidy) to take into account the consequences of the foot and mouth outbreak. Thus, all animals slaughtered during the retention period following a veterinary measures linked to foot and mouth or motivated by the welfare of the animals could receive a subsidy.
Modifications have been made concerning the granting of the extensification subsidy: when the measure banning the leaving of the farm (except for slaughter) applies for a period longer than 3 consecutive months, a coefficient of 0.5 applies beyond these three months for the entire period. Concerning the slaughter subsidy, for veal calves that have been unable to leave the farm to be slaughtered, the subsidy is granted to animals aged from 1 to 18 months and with a carcass weight below 175kg, slaughtered as of the date of the lifting of the measure until 30 June 2001. Each Member State may extend the time foreseen between the end of the retention period and the date of slaughter up to a maximum of two months minus one day (three months minus one day in the case of a ban on sending them to other States).