- BERLIN (AFP) - Germany has
discovered its first two cases of mad cow disease among German-born cattle,
a spokesman at the agriculture ministry said Friday, shattering its belief
that the country was free of the problem.
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- One animal was found in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein,
which is a major agricultural center. It had been born there in 1996.
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- The second infected cow of German origin was identified
on the Azores islands Friday, authorities reported. Thousands of animals
are now to be slaughtered on the Portugese archipelago.
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- The diseased animal had been imported from Germany to
the island of Sao Miguel in 1998. It was unclear where that cow contracted
the disease.
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- Germany had traced six cases of mad cow disease from
1994-97 but the infected animals had been imported, five from Britain and
one from Switzerland, and already sick when they were bought.
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- But officials had recently said they though the country
was free of the disease, which can spread to humans.
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- The government said Friday that it aimed introduce a
blanket ban on all feed containing animal products "as soon as possible",
potentially as soon as Monday, out of fears that the use of meat and bone
meal is contributing to the spread of mad cow disease.
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- Separately, newspapers had reported earlier that Germany
has possibly detected its first cases of the disease in humans, known as
variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).
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- The Tagesspiegel newspaper said a 22-year-old living
near the southern city of Munich had shown the telltale symptoms of the
disease, including severe depression and uncontrollable shaking, but a
definitive diagnosis had not yet been made.
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- Another 40-year-old patient had been hospitalized in
the central town of Bad Homburg with an illness doctors suspect may be
vCJD.
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- Bild newspaper also referred to a patient suffering from
similar symptoms in Bad Homburg, saying he was 60 years old and in a critical
condition.
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- In the wake of public health concerns, 80 percent of
Germans said they supported a ban on beef imports from France and Britain
due to the new reports of BSE there, according to a survey by television
news channel N24 released Friday.
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- Only 16 percent of respondents said they still wanted
to buy beef from those countries.
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