Experts Stress Safety of SRM-free Cattle

As the public’s apprehension over the possible health risks from U.S. beef has no signs of abating and even groundless “mad cow scare stories” are spreading since the government’s announcement to resume U.S. beef imports, experts in medical and scientific circles are stepping forward to officially express their opinions in an attempt to dispel unsubstantiated fears.

“Since the ban on animal feed, the cases of mad cow disease have drastically dropped worldwide, and the disease is anticipated to disappear in five years,” said Lee Yeong-soon, a veterinary professor at Seoul National University, on Thursday while speaking at a conference in Korea Press Center in Seoul on mad cow disease, sponsored by the Korean Academy of Science and Technology.

“Some 99.87 percent of abnormal proteinaceous particles called prions, which are deemed a main cause of mad cow disease, are found in specified risk materials (SRMs) such as the cattle’s brain, spine and intestines. The cow removed of those specific parts are considered safe,” explained Lee. “Human mad cow disease is not the one spreads through breath, skin contact and saliva. The massive intake of prions only leads to the disease,” he emphasized.

Woo Hee-jong, also a professor of veterinary at Seoul National University, who attended the conference as a panelist, echoed Lee’s opinion by saying, “In general situations, SRM-removed beef doesn’t pose any health risk.” But he raised suspicions over the argument that cattle under 30 months are all safe, saying, “Germany reported that mad cow disease was discovered in a 28-month-old cow. In Europe, those cows aged 24 months and over are screened for the disease before being slaughtered.”

Separately, 10 scientists affiliated with the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), including the nation’s leading scientist Shin Hee-seop, head of the Neuroscience Center at the KIST, held a press conference on the same day at the institute and refuted the claim that Koreans are inherently vulnerable to the human form of mad cow disease.

“The controversy over Koreans’ genetic susceptibility to human mad cow disease started from the thesis of Hallim University professor Kim Yong-seon. But Kim’s study was not about Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), commonly known as human mad cow disease, but about sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD),” Shin emphasized.

He also added that Japan’s research results showed that Met-Met genotype, which many Koreans have, do not raise the risks of being infected with sCJD. “We cannot conclude that one is predisposed to a disease because he or she has a certain gene.”

Yu Myeong-hee, technology development director at Proteomics, tried to allay the fear over the disease, saying, “The conclusion that those people with Met-Met genotype are vulnerable to vCJD was derived from a research conducted on Britons. Except in Britain, there is no data based on which we can draw any statistical conclusion.”

People at age 60 and older develop sCJD which is caused by protein variations called prions. But sCJD has nothing to do with mad cow disease, according to the scientists.