The Dutch agriculture ministry said Saturday that spinal cord matter, a high-risk place where BSE can lurk, was found on bovine carcasses in 25 abattoirs across the Netherlands.
During safety checks carried out in February, the matter -- banned by the European Union to prevent the spread of mad cow disease -- was found "on bovine carcasses in 25 sites," Dutch Agriculture Minister Laurens-Jan Brinkhorst said.
"The safety check found that the high-risk material was not properly destroyed," said the report to Dutch parliament, of which AFP obtained a copy.
All slaughterhouses in the Netherlands will now undergo rigorous tests to guarantee that "they respect their obligation to destroy the high-risk material," the report said.
The move follows reports in Britain that a consignment of Dutch beef contained spinal cord matter, considered partially responsible for the spread of bovine spongiform encephelopathy.
The Leeuwarden abattoir in northern Netherlands that sent the beef to Britain was closed while the agriculture ministry checked its meat safety standards.
Under EU rules, spinal cord matter must be removed when the animal is slaughtered -- THE HAGUE (AFP)
