Korea rules against suspension of US beef's imports

The South Korean government concluded that the latest outbreak

in the US of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), otherwise

known as the mad cow disease, poses no safety threat to the

general public, based on local inspection reports.

As such, the government will not be halting customs clearance or

suspending imports of US beef. The stricter quarantine system

involving a 50 percent sampling of the imports will continue,

however, so as to ease public fear. Similarly, the regular

inspection on US slaughterhouses will be conducted earlier this

year at the end of the month.

The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

(MIFAFF) held a meeting Friday on animal disease control

policies, upon being briefed by the inspection team that had just

returned to Korea earlier the same day. The joint investigation

team of public officials and private experts had been dispatched
to the US two weeks ago to inspect local conditions behind the
outbreak.
The inspection team disclosed that the animal in question - the
dairy cow from a Californian ranch detected with mad cow
disease on April 25 - was an elderly dairy cow of 127 months. It
was also confirmed to carry an atypical strain of BSE, which
Monday, May 14, 2012
means the cow was not infected by contaminated animal feed and the disease developed naturally or through abnormal mutations. In other words, the outbreak was an isolated incident and has not infected other cows in the same food system.
“The cow infected with BSE was buried at a safely quarantined site, and was not used as part of any beef or processed food products. Furthermore, we confirmed that the US beef industry was in full compliance with the BSE precautions, sanitation measures and other globally-established safeguards,” said a MIFAFF official.
The government will nevertheless keep the stricter quarantine in place to quell the public’s fear and unease, despite its confidence in the safety of the US beef. Furthermore, additional steps will be made to reassure consumers, including reinforced monitoring of source of origin and the meat tracking system
“The annual inspection on US slaughterhouses has been scheduled for the end of the month, moved up from October,” said a government official.