On 16 January 2001, Italy confirmed that the first case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) had been found in a cow on the Malpensata farm of Pontevico, Brescia. By 31 January the prime minister, Giuliano Amato, had approved putting the bovine sector under a nationwide state of emergency, and was awaiting confirmation from the Council of Ministers.
How has one case of mad cow disease convinced a beef-loving country to switch to fish and other meats?
| As the BSE crisis swept from Britain to France and then claimed the scalps of two German government ministers, Italy proudly claimed to be a haven for beef eaters. There was, until January, no evidence of BSE in Italian cows, and there have been no human cases of the new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (nvCJD) - the brain-wasting disease that is widely believed to be transmitted to people from infected beef, even though this has never been proved (1). My local butcher cannot have been the only one proudly displaying a sign to show he only sold Italian beef.
| The lack of evidence linking BSE and nvCJD made the magnitude of Britain's BSE scare difficult enough to understand. But in the UK, there had been around 50 human cases of nvCJD by 1999 (1) and 180,000 cases of BSE (2). By contrast, Italy has followed strict new European Union (EU) regulations and tested 11,333 (3) cattle. Only one case of BSE has been found, and no human cases of nvCJD.
| You might think these comforting findings would make Italian beef into the dish of the day. Yet evidence suggests that Italians have changed their eating habits. Some estimates put the slump in beef demand at 40 percent since the first BSE case was confirmed, compared with an EU average of a 17 percent decline (4). Many Italians are switching to pork, chicken or fish. Sandro Belardinelli, owner of one of Rome's most famous butcher's shops, 'Antica Macelleria', has converted his shop to sell only fresh fish.
| The reaction of Italian consumers to the BSE scare has been enough to cause economic problems both for families and for the government's inflation targets. Federconsumatori, the consumer group, estimates that Italian families will need to spend 672,000 lire more a year due to increases in prices of lamb, pork and fish since the BSE crisis started. There was an unexpected rise in January's inflation figures, in which the higher food prices for these meats was a significant factor (food prices represent 17 percent of the national inflation index). Food prices went up by 1.3 percent in Naples and 0.8 percent in Florence in January (5).
| The social repercussions of this scare are not lost on Italians, who still prefer to go to the local butcher than the supermarket for meat. Nor are they lost on those within the industry. According to Gian Paolo Angeletti, president of the National Butchers' Association, the crisis has already put 10,000 jobs at risk in the sector (6). The Federcarni trade association estimates that the meat industry has already lost 300 billion lire.
| There have been anti-government protests outside the Senate and the Agricultural Ministry, and strikes by butchers and slaughterhouses. On 30 January, 200 people demonstrated in Rome's Piazza Montecitorio in front of the lower house of parliament, throwing eggs, oranges and even fire crackers. The protesters were pacified when the government allowed representatives to enter the parliament building for discussions.
| The government's weak and confused response has only compounded the crisis. 'The beef going on the market should not be cause of alarm for Italians', stated prime minister Amato when it broke. But other ministers gave different messages. Agricultural minister, Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, said he would not even vouch for milk: 'I wouldn't stake my life on it, given the delicate nature of such matters.' He later withdrew his statement and tried to make amends, by declaring that he was not planning to 'give up cappuccino'.
| Meanwhile, health minister Umberto Veronesi has stated that the government will have no idea of how widespread BSE is until there have been 50,000 tests (11,333 had been carried out by 1 February), and he recently postponed a decision on whether to ban the famous 'Fiorentina' (T-Bone) steak. 'So far we've had only one case [of BSE], but there will certainly be more', Veronesi added, reassuringly (7).
| If anything could make matters worse than Italians' growing distaste for beef, it is that Legambiente and Uniprom, Italy's largest environmental body and fishermen's federation, has reported that the safety of imported seafood cannot be guaranteed. Buon appetito.
| Dominic Standish is director of the Progress Consultancy in Veneto, Italy.
| (1) The Tyranny of Health, Dr Michael Fitzpatrick (2001), Routledge, pp 18-19
(2) 'Divided we fall?', The Economist, 20 January 2001
(3) 'BSE: government may declare state of emergency', Michele Menichella,
Il Sore 1 Feburary 2001
(4) 'Food Risks Seen and Denied', In Brief, International Herald Tribune, Italy Daily,15 January 2001, p1
(5) 'Inflation Soars Faster Than Expected', Iain Rogers, Bloomberg News, International Herald Tribune, Italy Daily, 26 January 2001
(6) 'A Tragedy of Errors,' Piero Ostellino, International Herald Tribune Italy Daily, 1 Feburary 2001
(7) See here for more information on the Italian Government's responses to BSE
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