Governments sued over BSE

Lawyers say governments failed to stop BSE spreading

Farmers are set to launch billion dollar law suits against the French and German Governments for failing to prevent the spread of mad cow disease.

They also plan to make claims against US-based animal feed manufacturers, whose contaminated products are blamed for helping to spread the disease.

Laws are being prepared which will take away any entitlement to compensation

Lawyer Michael Witti

The cases are being brought by German lawyer Michael Witti and his American colleague Ed Fagan, best known for their successful compensation actions for the victims of Nazi slave labour.

Mr Witti told journalists in Munich that governments must take more of the blame for the spread of BSE through Europe.

"The government told the farmers that there was no problem, you're safe. That was either stupid or lies," he said.

Time running out

Unlike the Holocaust claims, the suits will be filed individually and five farmers from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Poland have come forward to bring charges.

German farmers have been angered by a mass slaughter policy

The first suits could be filed within two months.

Mr Witti said the cases had to be brought now, before regulations were changed.

"At the moment the people affected still have time to say something. Laws are being prepared which will take away any entitlement to compensation," he said.

Other governments as well as the European Union could also be subject to law suits, he said.

Germany had believed itself to be BSE-free until November last year. The discovery that the German national herd had been affected sparked panic among consumers, and beef sales have plummeted.

German optimism

Farmers have been angered by a government policy which calls for an entire herd to be slaughtered if one infected animal is found.

While farmers in Britain, the European country worst affected by the disease, did not pursue legal action, because of the difficulty of pinning down where the blame for the outbreak lay, experts think the German action could be more successful.

By the time BSE crossed the English channel, much more was known about the disease, meaning more preventative action was possible.

French victims of CJD - the human form of mad cow disease - have already begun legal action against the French and British governments.