US unveils new measures to guard against mad cow disease

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, December 31, 2003

US unveils new measures to guard against mad cow disease

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The US government Tuesday announced a ban on all "downer" cattle from entering human food chain, in a bid to rid itself of the mad cow scare that caused its beef exports to a halt with more than 30 countries banning US beef.

Meanwhile, US agriculture officials paid visits to Japan and South Korea, the two largest US beef importers, to discuss the emergency of the disease.

SIGNIFICANT UPGRADE

As part of a package of new measures to guard against the mad cow disease, US Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman told a press conference that all "downer" cattle will be banned from entering the human food chain.

The first mad cow disease in the United States was found in a "downer" cow, which was too sick to walk on its own. Brain and spinal cord tissues were removed from the animal slaughtered on Dec. 9, but its meat was allowed to be processed and sold for human consumption.

Each year, an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 "downer" cattle are slaughtered in the United States.

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association has backed a "test and hold" stance for suspicious cattle like "downer" animals. A spokesman for the American Meat Institute also announced the institute's support for the measure.

Other new measures unveiled by Veneman include:

-- Holding meat from cattle that have been inspected for mad cow disease until the test has confirmed negative;

-- Barring the use of mechanically separated meat in human food;

-- And prohibiting the use of air injection stunning to kill the cattle to ensure that portions of the brain are not dislocated into the tissues of the carcass.

As an enhancement of current regulations, small intestine of cattle of all ages and skull, brain, eyes and spinal cord of cattle over 30 months old will be seen as specified risk materials and are thus banned for use in the human food supply, Veneman said.

The Agriculture Department also promised to step up efforts to create an electronic animal identification system, which, running at a cost of 500 million US dollars in the first six years, would enable a quicker response to animal-borne diseases like mad cow.

Veneman said the department will assemble an international panel of experts to examine its response to the first US case of mad cow disease.

"I am appointing an international panel of scientific experts to provide an objective review of our response actions and identify areas for potential additional enhancements," she said.

GLOBAL BAN ON US BEEF

US investigators have traced the diseased Holstein dairy cow, living in a farm in the Washington State before being slaughtered, to a herd imported from Alberta, Canada, in 2001.

Ron DeHaven, chief veterinarian at the Department of Agriculture, on Tuesday said investigators expect to identify within a few days the whereabouts of all 81 cattle imported into the United States at the same time of the Holstein dairy cow.

Humans can contract a form of the mad cow disease, known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, by eating tissue from the brains, spinal cords or central nervous systems of infected animals.

The news of finding the mad cow disease in the United States sent shock waves around the world. So far, more than 30 countries and regions have imposed a ban on US beef, accounting for more than 90 percent of the US beef exports.

These countries and regions are: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan), Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Grenada, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela and Vietnam.

BEEF TALKS WITH JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA

A US delegation, led by David Hegwood, Veneman's trade adviser, arrived in South Korea on Tuesday for discussions on the ban on US beef products after wrapping up a visit to Japan.

South Korea and Japan are the two largest importers of US beef products.

"Contrary to some press reports, the goal of the delegation is not to pressure the Korean government to immediately reopen the Korean market to American beef imports," the US embassy in Seoul said in a press release Monday.

The US officials will inform South Korean officials of investigations into the mad cow disease and discuss next steps, the press release said.

An unidentified Japanese official has said the US delegation had asked Japan to discuss lifting the ban on US beef in Tokyo but Japan rejected the demand.

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