China to Test its Cattle for Mad Cow Disease

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Source: Asia Daily News 9 Feb 2001 [edited]

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s/010209/asia/afp/China_to_test_its_cattle_for_mad_cow_disease.html>

 

 

China to Test its Cattle for Mad Cow Disease

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BEIJING: China will check imported cattle and domestic cows fed on meat and

bone meal (MBM) from abroad for mad cow disease (Bovine Spongiform

Encephalopathy, BSE), state media said.

 

The investigation, to be carried out on hundreds of imported cattle, their

offspring, and a " huge number " of domestic cows fed with foreign-made MBM,

will ascertain whether these animals have symptoms of BSE, the China Daily

said.

 

Ministry of agriculture official Zhao Weining told the paper although there

were no reported cases of BSE and its human version, Creutzfeldt-Jakob

Disease (vCJD), in China, a survey of cattle was still necessary to gauge

the health of China's cows.

 

" There is a very slim chance BSE will become an epidemic in China, " said

Zhao, director of the ministry's animal quarantine management division,

quoting the findings of a " BSE risk analysis " conducted by the quarantine

institute last year.

 

Zhao refused to say how many cows would be tested, but said the number of

cows fed with imported feed were " not a lot " compared the total number of

cows in China. He said China had banned the use of ground-up cattle and

sheep carcasses in cattle feed since 1992, saying only a few cows fed with

such animal feed were still living.

 

Public concern and international research linked the spread of the

brain-wasting disease to cattle imports and bone meal convinced the

government to conduct the investigation, he said. " If any of the cows are

found to have signs such as nervousness or twitching and are cleared of

other diseases, the cases will immediately be reported to the ministry, "

Zhao told China Daily.

 

China had banned imports of cattle and cattle products from BSE-infected

countries since 1990 and stopped the imports of cattle and cattle products,

including cattle feed made from ground-up carcasses, from all countries in

the European Union on 1 Jan 2001.

 

A nationwide cattle survey carried out in line with international practice

is necessary to get an accurate picture of the health situation of cows in

China, said an expert from China's national BSE test center in Qingdao,

northern Shandong province. He said China might have imported cows, cattle

products or bone meal from some countries before the disease was found

there, the unidentified expert told China Daily.

 

In another development, the Beijing administration for exit/entry

inspection and quarantine announced it was setting up China's first BSE

control laboratory in the Chinese capital. The laboratory will provide

convincing proof to the world Chinese cattle and beef are safe, making

exports of Chinese animals and their products more attractive, he said.

 

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