German scrapie talk sabotage says Sutton

By GREGG WYCHERLEY and PHILIPPA STEVENSON

Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton has accused a German producer board of commercial sabotage, after the publication of a pamphlet alleging that New Zealand sheep are infected with scrapie.

He said he would meet the president of the German Farmers' Union, Gerd Sonnleitner, on Thursday to protest at "scurrilous claims" that New Zealand sheep have the fatal disease scrapie.

Mr Sonnleitner is also a board member of Germany's Central Marketing Agency (CMA), the organisation that made the claim.

He is on a scheduled visit to New Zealand.

The pamphlet, destined for every household in Germany, incorrectly states that New Zealand has a problem with scrapie, a degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system of sheep and goats.

Mr Sutton said he was unsure how many of the approximately 33 million pamphlets, intended to allay food safety fears, had reached German homes.

The fatal disease, a member of the spongiform encephalopathy family - which includes BSE, or mad cow disease - affects sheep and goats but is not dangerous to humans. Affected animals scratch against fixed objects like fence posts, lose weight, and develop walking abnormalities.

New Zealand and Australia are the only countries in the world free of scrapie.

The last case in New Zealand was in 1954, brought in by sheep imported from Britain.

Mr Sutton said he believed the leaflet was a deliberate attempt to turn German consumers, already panicked by mad cow disease and the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Britain, away from imported meat.

"This is absolutely outrageous - firstly to liken scrapie to BSE, and then suggest we have it.

"It's a stupid thing to do, and in most civilised countries, a criminal thing to do."

He said the CMA was a statutory organisation with the ability to levy taxes, the equivalent of a statutory producer board in New Zealand.

"An official organisation with the ability to distribute 33 million leaflets has obviously got the resources to do its homework.

"Any animal health authority in the world would make it clear to them that New Zealand is free from scrapie."

He said it was too early to say how much damage had been done to the $185 million industry, but he would contact the German Government this week.

"We'll be taking it up with the Germans on a Government-to-Government level - it simply cannot be allowed to pass."

He said a retraction distributed to everyone that received the pamphlet would be the minimum requirement.

"Everybody knows that once scurrilous allegations are made the denials and retractions never catch up with all the damage.

"I would think that Meat New Zealand would have to be seriously considering seeking damages."

Meat New Zealand chief executive Neil Taylor said the claims endangered a market equal in value to New Zealand's entire wine exports.

He said he hoped the issue could be resolved without litigation.