April 28, 2012

Taiwan to stop US beef imports if BSE risk status rises

Taiwan will immediately cancel US beef imports and relevant products if the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) raises the US' mad cow disease risk status, Health Minister Chiu Wen-ta said Thursday (Apr 26).

Chiu made the comment at a session of the Legislative Committee on Social Welfare, Health and the Environment on the government's response measures toward a new case of mad cow disease, academically known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), in California.

The case came to light April 24 when a dairy cow in the central part of the US state was confirmed by the USDA to be infected with atypical BSE, a disease that is fatal to cattle. Eating tainted meat can cause a fatal brain disease in humans known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

"As the infected meat did not enter the US food supply chain and preliminary reports have shown the infection to be an isolated case, we will not halt US beef imports for the time being," Chiu told lawmakers.

However, he went on, imports of US beef and beef products will be suspended if the OIE pulls the US off its list of countries recognised as "controlled risk" in its three-tier BSE risk categorisation.

The OIE categorisation system is designed to reflect the current knowledge and understanding of BSE and to recognise the effectiveness of steps countries have taken to mitigate the spread of the disease and eventually eradicate it. The categories are "negligible risk," "controlled risk," and "undetermined risk."

Chiu told lawmakers that neighbouring Japan and South Korea have both decided not to stop US beef imports over the latest mad cow disease case, the fourth on US soil since 2003.

"The two Asian neighbours decided just to tighten inspections of beef imports from the US," Chiu added.

The committee session, which was originally scheduled to screen draft revisions to the Act Governing Food Sanitation with the aim of conditionally lifting a ban on entry of US beef containing residue of the leanness-enhancing drug ractopamine, came to an abrupt end over disagreement on whether the draft revisions should be voted on clause-by-clause or as a complete package.

Ruling Kuomintang Legislator Tsai Chin-lung, who chaired the session, said new rounds of cross-party consultations will need to be called to discuss the voting dispute.