U.S.’ BSE Cow Confirmed to be Canadian

U.S.’ BSE Cow Confirmed to be Canadian. January. 07, 2004 22:59. by Jin-Hup Song Sung-Kyu Kim jinhup@donga.com kimsk@donga.com.

The United State’s Department of Agriculture (USDA) made an official announcement that the cows infected with mad cow disease are definitely from Canada. Following this statement, U.S. pressure to lift the ban by Korea and other countries on U.S. beef is expected to increase.

Canada, in addition, is expected to send Bob Speller, Minister of Agriculture, on January 12 to Korea on an errand to get the import ban on Canadian beef lifted.

The USDA head veterinarian, Dr. Ron Dehaven, held a press conference on January 6 where he stated that, “After a semen DNA test on a Washington Holstein cow and one of its offspring, and the father of a mad cow disease infected youth, we verified that this cow was born in Alberta, in the western part of Canada.”

AP correspondence stated that Brian Aberns, head veterinarian of the Canadian food inspection department, confirmed that he found the same result through separate research. The BSE infected cow was brought to the U.S. from Canada in 2001 and is six and half years old. It is known to have been born in the same place as the cow suspected of having of BSE was found.

The U.S. livestock farming industry is speculated to act to lift the ban on U.S. beef imports by each country, supported by the fact that the origin of the BSE cow is Canada. After the first detection of mad cow disease on December 23, more than thirty countries including Korea have banned US beef imports.

Canada’s agriculture minister, Speller, is planning to visit Korea, Japan, the U.S., and other countries to encourage the end of the Canadian beef import ban, which many countries adopted last May.

In spite of this, the Ministry of Agriculture has an attitude of “no perfect safety, no beef.”

Kim Ju-soo, assistant secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, has put his foot down about not lifting the ban immediately, saying, “No change in the situation has transpired based on the fact that the cow at issue is Canadian.”

On the other hand, a Ministry of Agriculture affiliated organization, the National Veterinary Science Quarantine, is set to launch a special care system for SRM parts such as the cerebrum and spinal cord, where BSE infection is more likely to reside in imported beef by endowing it with a separate product classification code.