Washington - The United States will restrict imports of cattle, sheep and some livestock products from 21 European nations until there is proof of no "mad cow" risk from them, the Agriculture Department says.
The tough new rules are intended to protect the U.S. food supply from the growing number of European nations where the deadly disease has been found.
Similar U.S. restrictions are already in place for ruminant animals and some livestock products, such as fresh meat and meat and bone meal from Britain, France, Ireland, Oman, Portugal, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg . "Mad cow" disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, has been detected in those nations.
The USDA said Friday the restrictions would be lifted for countries that employ sufficiently strong surveillance systems.
"We made this decision to protect human and animal health, to protect the security of our export markets, and to protect the safety and integrity of our food supply," Assistant Agriculture Secretary Mike Dunn said in a statement.
The disease, which destroys brain cells of cattle, has no cure. British officials suspect a variation of mad cow disease can be spread to humans via the food chain.
The USDA action came after the announcement earlier this week that Luxembourg was the ninth European country to discover a case of mad cow disease. The deadly disease was apparently transmitted through fodder with tissue from infected cattle.
Last month, Belgium was criticized for failing to properly diagnose an animal with BSE, and allowing the diseased carcass to be made into animal feed that was sold elsewhere in Europe.
A USDA spokesman said that the new restrictions were not related to the US-European Union dispute over tallow, cattle brains and related livestock products. He emphasized the U.S. interest in assuring that other nations were vigilant in checking for BSE infections and promptly sharing information with others.
The United States opposes an Europea Union plan to ban imports beginning Jan. 1 of some livestock products, a move U.S. negotiators claim could disrupt an estimated $4.5 billion in cosmetic and pharmaceutical trade.
The United States says its products are safe because there is no U.S. history of BSE.
The USDA said it stopped issuing import permits for animals and the specified products from Albania, Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Yugoslavia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
The EU banned beef exports from Britain in March 1996 after the British government said there was a possible link between BSE and a similar but rare brain-wasting disease in humans known as Creutzfeld- Jakob Disease.
Earlier this month, the British government banned the sale of on-the-bone beef after scientists said there was a small risk of contaminated material getting into the food chain.
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