Forty percent of respondents in a German opinion poll said they had changed their eating habits due to fears over mad cow disease, a magazine said Tuesday.
Among those who said they had altered their diets, 48 percent said they had stopped eating beef entirely while 30 percent said they were eating less beef, Max magazine reported, quoting a study carried by public opinion research firm Forsa.
Forty-six percent of those who reported a change in their behavior since the news of the crisis broke in Germany said they were now eating more poultry and 26 percent said they bought more pork.
Six percent said they had stopped eating meat entirely due to fears of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the medical name of the disease.
BSE has been identified in five cows in Germany in the last month, after officials had said the country was free of the brain-wasting illness.
More than one in two of respondents -- 59 percent -- said they were prepared to pay more for meat that came from well-treated animals raised on organic farms. Thirty-four percent said they would not pay more.
Experts say that eating meat from cattle infected with mad cow disease can lead to a fatal human form of the brain-wasting illness, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD).
No case of vCJD has so far been reported in Germany -- BERLIN (AFP)
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