A global animal health body has granted South Korea "controlled risk" status on mad cow disease, a move that could improve consumer confidence in local beef products, the government said Thursday (May 27).

 

The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) concluded that South Korea met internationally accepted livestock control and testing standards.

 

OIE demands appropriate control and monitoring of the entire beef cattle-raising process - from birth and growth to butchering and distribution - to prevent animals from contracting mad cow, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and keep contaminated meat from reaching store shelves.

 

In the past, South Korea was rated as an "undetermined BSE risk" country because it had previously not carried out the required number of tests on livestock. Seoul has never reported a case of BSE.

 

Technically, a country with a controlled risk designation can export beef with almost no restrictions, and with minor limits placed in regard to so-called specified risk materials that may transmit BSE to humans.

 

"The main benefit is likely to come from improved consumer perception that the country is maintaining internationally recommended monitoring standards," a ministry official said.

 

He added, however, that it might be difficult to export since local beef is much more expensive than those shipped from countries such as the US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.