BERLIN A wave of anger hit Germany on Sunday over the arrival of mad cow disease which political leaders and farm experts had long said could not spread across its borders.
"We believed the nonsense the whitewashers told us that Germany was free from BSE," wrote Welt Am Sonntag. "There probably isn't any safe haven in Europe anymore." "They made fools out of us with the long-winded promises that Germany is safe from BSE," said the Berliner Morgenpost.
Butchers reported plunging beef sales amid calls for the resignation of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's farm and health ministers following news that two, and perhaps dozens more, of the country's 15 million cows might be infected.
Opposition politicians and ordinary Germans blasted the government and farm authorities for their arrogant claims that Germany was immune from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) because of superior testing and tighter controls.
Newspaper editorials denounced the leaders for misleading the public about the safety of beef in Germany and slammed them for resisting European Union-wide efforts to ban the meat-based animal feed.
The government, which had long resisted stricter measures, reversed itself and called on Saturday for tests on cattle throughout the EU.
Agriculture Minister Karl-Heinz Funke, who last week was saying he was "absolutely convinced" Germany was immune to BSE, changed his tune on Friday and demanded fast national testing of slaughtered cattle.
He later widened the call to urge mandatory testing throughout the EU and on beef imported into the EU.
German Consumers Turn Away From Beef State and federal ministers also agreed at a meeting in Bonn to back Schroeder's call for an immediate ban on the import, export and use of animal feeds containing meat and bone meal.
The measure will become law on Wednesday, and Germany will push for an EU-wide ban in December. Infected feeds have been blamed for the spread of BSE and the human form of mad cow disease, new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (NVCJD).
"It is disgraceful the way the government put commerce ahead of the public's safety," said Edmund Stoiber, State Premier of Bavaria and a leader of the conservative opposition.
Several butchers in Berlin said Friday's shock news that Germany was no longer free from BSE had crippled sales and that many consumers had said they would stop eating beef.
"I didn't sell a single piece of beef on Saturday," butcher Harry Kretschmer told the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper. "There are usually about 100 customers in here every day." BSE hit the headlines in Britain in 1986. The crisis reached fever pitch a decade later after scientists said they believed there was a link between mad cow disease and its human equivalent, which has killed 80 Britons.
"Who could have any faith in German meat now?" Said Larissa Hanschke, a Berlin midwife, who said she and her daughter were giving up meat.
"It shows Germany is no better when it comes to testing. They act like they're better. It's all a farce." A Dutch scientist and member of the EU's Veterinary Committee, Albert Osterhaus, told Der Spiegel he estimated there might be several dozen German cows infected with BSE.
"This is horrible and I don't think I'll be eating as much beef anymore," said Juergen Hillbrandt, 45, a Berlin sports official who had until Friday eaten meat almost daily. "I'm going to start eating more fish." (Reuter)