(CN) Watchdog: Majority of dairy food safe

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China Daily

http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-07/25/content_248873.htm

by ZHAO HUANXIN and ZHENG CAIXIONG,China Daily staff

2003-07-25 07:47:10

 

China's dairy products are safe and the overwhelming majority of

Chinese cows are free of tuberculosis (TB), the country's animal health

watchdog and industry insiders said yesterday.

 

Jia Youling, director of the Ministry of Agriculture's Animal

Husbandry Bureau, yesterday said China's cows are in sound health on the

whole, despite sporadic reports of some infections such as tuberculosis.

 

The director's comments came the day after a TB-hit dairy farm was

closed in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province.

 

More than 400 sick cows from the Guangzhou Yunyan Cattle Farm were

slaughtered on Wednesday, the provincial animal husbandry bureau said.

 

The disease has been reported in some other parts of China, but none

of the other cases has been as serious as that in Guangzhou, Jia said

without giving details.

 

The official said the Ministry of Agriculture had released a technical

code on the prevention of bovine TB, which requires veterinary departments

or animal quarantine agencies to conduct regular vaccinations and

inspections of cows every spring and autumn to discover and deal with any

cases of bovine tuberculosis in dairies.

 

Hao Zhixiong, director of the Hohhot Animal Husbandry and Non-Staple

Foodstuffs Office, said the capital of North China's Inner Mongolia

Autonomous Region - a leading dairy producer - discovered some TB-infected

cows earlier this year. But he did not say how many animals were infected.

 

The cows were treated and their milk was not allowed to enter the

market, Hao said.

 

Yu Yedong, director of the Guangdong Animal Epidemic Prevention

Station, said yesterday: " No one has been reported as having been infected

with tuberculosis by drinking milk or other dairy products, but we have to

remain vigilant. "

 

Zhao Fengru, an expert with the Beijing Dairy Cattle Centre, said she

believed that milk and other dairy products in the Chinese capital are safe

for consumption because they have to go through a whole series of quality

inspections.

 

The Beijing Sanyuan Food Co Ltd said all its source materials for its

dairy products come from qualified farms and that the company's

state-of-the-art quality-control equipment will weed out any substandard raw

milk.

 

Wang Dingmian, director of the Guangzhou Dairy Association, said the

government should subsidize farmers who have to slaughter their cows for

reasons of epidemic control.

 

This would reduce the chance of farmers failing to notify the

authorities of animal epidemics, as was the case at the Guangzhou Yunyan

Cattle Farm.

 

 

(China Daily 07/25/2003 page1)