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No Mad Cow Disease Reported in China
According to reports from the Ministry of Agriculture, so far no mad cow disease has been detected in China thanks to a strict control and non-existence of any channel for infection.
The Chinese government has attached great importance to the research and control work of the mad cow disease. China has set up a research center to make an earnest study on it since 1998 with the risk assessment of the disease started in early 2000. Up to now, the report on the theme which is considered necessary in beef trading countries has been completed and will be announced on February 14.
According to the report, the major infection channel of the mad cow disease is food chain. It is caused by intensive animal fodder feeding, such as meat and bone meal (MBM). While in China cows are mostly raised separately and fed with straw and soybean in farming areas and so they do not have any access to meat and bone meal (MBM) that entails the spread of the disease, known formally as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
A responsible person in the Ministry of Agriculture said that the most important thing we should do is to prevent the spread of the mad cow disease into China from foreign countries. The related departments have banned the import of feeding stuffs like meat and bone meal (MBM) from the EU member countries. All entry & exit quarantine departments have made the animal fodder as a statutorily quarantined product and these departments should administer examination according to the Registration License issued by the Ministry of Agriculture. Unlicensed Products will have no chance to declare and to be examined.
Mad cow disease was first found in Britain in 1985 and may cause a similar ailment in humans known as Creutzfeld-Jacob disease.
By PD Online Staff Li Yan
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