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Chinese Herds to Checked for Mad Cow Disease
Imported cattle and domestic cows that are fed on meat and bone meal (MBM) from abroad will receive mad cow disease check, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
Public concern and international research, that linked the spread of disease to cattle imports and MBM, urged the government to promote the check, said Zhao Weining, of the Ministry of Agriculture.
The director of the ministry's Animal Quarantine Management Division said no BSE and its human version, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, had been detected in China.
The investigation will be carried out on imported cattle, their descendants and cows fed with foreign-made MBM, Zhao said.
China has banned imports of cattle and cattle products from BSE- infected countries since 1999, and stopped the imports of feed made from animal carcasses in the European Union on January 1 this year.
The country imported less than 180,000 tons of MBM products and animal fats in the first 10 months of 2000, as well as 500 cows, none of which came from European countries gripped by mad cow fears, according to latest customs statistics.
A nationwide cattle survey carried out in line with international practice is necessary to get an accurate picture of the health situation of cows in China as the country might have imported cows, their products or MBM from some countries before the disease was found there, said an expert from China's National BSE Test Center in Qingdao, Shandong Province.
Zhao also noted that the export volume of China's cattle and cattle products remains very low.
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