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Mad Cow downs beef sales
by Franco Aloisio
Beef sales and consumption of bovine products in restaurants
and hotels are once again on the decrease as the Mad Cow scare
rages on, even in Malta.
Restaurants and hotels reported a significant drop in sales
of beef, with locals and tourists preferring to opt for alternative
meat such as pork, lamb, poultry, fish and even exotic products
such as kangaroo meat.
The owner of a restaurant in Sliema said that over the past
week or so very few clients ordered steak or dishes containing
beef. Luckily, he said, clients have other meat dishes to choose
from.
The worst hit, however, are meat importers and butchers, who
have seen their sales plummet considerably in the wake of the
Mad Cow scare. One butcher in Naxxar reported a 90 per cent
decrease in sales.
Most of Malta’s beef imports come from Britain, Ireland,
Italy, France, Holland and New Zealand. Around 75 per cent of
the imports consist of pre-packed products, while the remaining
25 per cent are cattle carcases which are cut locally. The importation
of T-bone beef had been banned years ago.
The slaughter of cattle at the Marsa abattoir also decreased
from 120 a week to 80 or 90 as demand subsided.
More than 3,000 medical kits have been ordered to test local
cattle for the Mad Cow disease. The tests cost between Lm7 to
Lm10 per cow and should be available by the end of the month.
The government veterinarian Lino Vella is currently in London
where he is monitoring the usage of these tests and a Maltese
technician is training in Britain to take brain tissue samples
for tested.
The spread of BSE is being attributed to a certain type of feed
given to cattle which consists of a high-protein bone and meat
meal and is far cheaper than cereal-based fodder. This type
of feed was banned in Malta in 1990. However, the bone meal
is still being used in several European countries, although
the EU’s agriculture council last week ordered a ban on
its use.
Mad Cow disease is passed to human beings when infected meat
is consumed. BSE in humans transforms itself into a variant
known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), which mainly affects
young children. The disease has an incubation period of 10 to
15 years.
The symptoms of vCJD include eccentric behaviour, jerky movements
and dementia. It ultimately leads to death. No cure or vaccine
exists yet.
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