Proposal in Germany to test sheep for BSE variant

In sheep, the disease is known as scrapie. The prevailing theory is that bovine spongiform encephalopathy developed in the 1970s from scrapie, which has been known in British sheep for hundreds of years.

Funke said the risk of German sheep being infected was not high because few were given factory-made fodder. He said 60 to 70 per cent of flocks were nomadic and kept the year round on pasture. German shepherds mostly drive their sheep from place to place to graze.

The European Union's top farm official, Franz Fischler, said meanwhile he wanted E.U. inspectors to be able to check farms without previous permission from national authorities. He told the German newspaper Die Welt there should be a "rapid sanctions mechanism" to punish E.U. member states that breach rules to combat BSE, which has flared up in recent weeks in France and Germany.

As beef sausages become practically unsaleable in Germany, products labelled "beef-free" have appeared in some Bavarian supermarkets although they contain beef, the newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine reported. Labels with the claim had been slapped on the packed sausages since the crisis began, but analysis by southern Bavaria local health officials found four out of five samples did in fact contain beef.

Of five cases on BSE found so far among German-bred cows, four have been in Bavaria state.

(bb/dpa)