EC: Agreement with Czechs on cow slaughtering only preliminary

The talks between the European Commission and the Czech Republic, which resulted in Brussels' tacit approval of the use of milk from the herd in which a BSE- infected cow is found, were only preliminary and did not produce any formal agreement, the European Commission said on Thursday. It stressed that a possible change in the procedures for slaughtering of animals that might have contracted mad cow disease first has to be proposed by the European Commission College and then approved by member states. On Tuesday the Agriculture Ministry announced that Czech farmers who own an infected cow will not have to kill all animals of the same age in the herd. Instead, the cows will continue to produce milk and will be put down gradually.