No panic over BSE in goat, minister says
Greek meat and milk are safe and people should not panic at the news that a French goat tested positive for «mad cow disease,» Deputy Agricultural Development and Food Minister Alexandros Kontos said yesterday. He added that every precaution, in accordance with EU regulations, was being taken to ensure that any meat from Greek cows, sheep and goats entering the human food chain was perfectly safe to eat. The European Commission said last week that the French goat, which was initially thought to be suffering from scrapie, was the first species apart from cattle to ever contract bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Left Coalition Synaspismos MEP Dimitris Papadimoulis accused the government of generalizing and of not answering questions about tests on 12 Greek goats found to have scrapie in the first half of 2004.
