Brussels, 10/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is not concerned about the appearance of the first official case of BSE in Finland (which had been, along with Sweden and Austria, one of the three EU countries given the status of BSE-free zone). A spokesperson for Commissioner David Byrne simply noted that the Finnish authorities had already applied all the Community measures for combating BSE, adding that the discovery was no great surprise. She explained that Finland benefited from a derogation permitting it to not have to systematically test all cattle over 30 months old, but that the situation would be reexamined at the next Standing Veterinary Committee meeting on Tuesday.
The Finnish agriculture minister, Kalevi Hemila, seems to have taken the lead by deciding to test all cattle of more than 30 months old (despite Finland's derogation) and to multiply five-fold the number of tests currently being carried out (25,000 to 30,000). Finland's veterinary authorities suspect that milk substitutes (to which animal fats are added) for farmed veal calves may be where the disease came from. A spokesperson for the Finnish agriculture ministry said that they were examining milk substitutes fed to veal calves and that 99% of these substitutes were produced in Finland, with the remaining 1% imported from Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark in the 1990s. He added that it was known that in Japan, BSE was caused by milk substitutes and a similar situation existed in Denmark.