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Mad Cow Disease to Cost Germany at Least US$765m
Mad cow disease will cost German consumers, firms, and the government at least 1.6 billion marks (US$765 million), according to a government study cited on Sunday by the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
That figure did not include possible new subsidies for sectors hit by the crisis including farms, slaughterhouses and feed manufacturers, Bild added.
The planned slaughter of 400,000 cattle over the age of 30 months, part of a European Union plan to restore consumer confidence in beef and prop up meat prices, will cost up to 647 million marks, Bild reported.
The disposal of banned fodder that includes meat and bone meal will carry a price tag of 774 million marks, and new tests for the disease on slaughtered cows over the age of 30 months and cattle that died of natural causes will cost 193 million marks.
Part of the costs will be covered by fees levied on meat companies, and the European Union is to contribute 322 million marks, Bild said.
Germany learned that it, like many of its European neighbors, had been struck by mad cow disease when a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), as the illness is formally known, was discovered in a German-born cow in November.
But Bild also reported that despite serious consumer concerns, most Germans were satisfied with the center-left government's management of the problem.
Citing a poll by the research institute Allensbach, Bild said 37 percent of Germans agreed with the way Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was handling the mad cow crisis.
Twenty-eight percent were unsatisfied and 35 percent were unsure.
"Approval for Schroeder even tends to be growing," Allensbach managing director Renate Koecher told Bild.
"People have the feeling he can manage crises and the opposition has yet to develop an effective strategy against him," she said. (Agencies)
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