Kuwait has decided to ban beef imports from France, Ireland, Portugal and Switzerland because of the mad cow disease in Europe, the commerce ministry announced Wednesday. Several other Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, have adopted similar bans.
On Tuesday, European Union officials held talks in Brussels on how to finance and monitor the destruction of up to 2.5 million cattle under measures to halt the spread of mad cow disease.
The decision to destroy the animals was taken amid a new public scare about mad cow disease, which is linked to a fatal brain-wasting disease in humans, the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. — (AFP, Kuwait City)
© Agence France Presse 2000
