Malaysia Veterinary Forum (Archive)

Dr csh · Joined: 21 Jan 2006 Posts: 425

I decided to start up another topic since the ruminant section seems to be quite inactive.

Most of you probably have heard about positive cases for mad cow detected in recent years in the USA, Canada, and Japan. Although each one of those cases have cause immediate trade restrictions and loss of billions of dollars, the question remains, should I be concerned?

For the benefit of those who have not done much reading on the subject, I will list a couple of facts that may be useful.

- Mad cow disease or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is a RARE disease is cows. The USA has tested hundreds of thousands of animals and found 3. All of which were removed from the human food chain.
- The most important risk factors for cows is feeding cows with nervous tissue of other cows even if it is properly cooked.
- Eating cows with BSE has been attributed to cause New Varient Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (nv-CJD) in humans.
- Regular Creuzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) is a naturally occuring disease worldwide with the steady incidence rate of about 1 in a million and happens mainly in people older than 60.
- Difference between nv-CJD and CJD is described in http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/cjd/detail_cjd.htm
- CDC reports that up to june 2005, 177 cases of nv-CJD has been diagnosed worldwide and there has not been an increasing trend in CJD
- Every new case of BSE found cost the country millions in trade restrictions and loss of export markets.
- It is expensive to test all the cattle for BSE.
- It has been made illegal to feed nervous tissue of cows to cows.

So, my point is:
- Millions of people ate infected cows but few developed problems. Maybe they are just incubating the disease and we shall see the real outcome after a few decades.
- Beef from USA, Japan and UK is pretty safe because they test their meat and positive cattle are removed before they enter the human food chain. I doubt that India tests the buffalos they send to us, and neither do I think Malaysia tests the cattle locally slaughtered so I am far more worried about beef from countries that never reported the disease including Malaysia.
- Having said that, the chances of actually getting infected tissue would probably be rare. And you can understand why countries would prefer not to test in fears of what they might find.

I am personally not worried about eating beef and certainly more confident in the safety of beef from Japan, USA and Uk.

Dr. TanDY · Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 5:02 pm Post subject:

So far I never heard of anyone working on Mad Cow Disease (research project) in Malaysia.

Correctly if I'm wrong, but I doubt that the Malaysian public health department will ever check for the disease on the imported beef or beef products - unless someone has finally came down with the disease...

Dr. TanDY · Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 9:13 pm Post subject:

Just to share with you this news:

Ban on US beef lifted

Tuesday March 7, 2006

Source: The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has lifted the ban on US beef imports, and two American abattoirs have been given the green light to sell their meat to us.

This is to ease the local shortage of imported beef, following a ban on beef from New Zealand and Australia in July last year because the meat from those countries was deemed not halal.

Malaysia banned the import of American beef in December 2003 over fears of mad cow disease, also known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE).

“We will be cautious with the beef imports. We insisted that the meat must come from cattle less than 30 months old,” said Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

He said officers from the Veterinary Services Department and Jakim had inspected the two American abattoirs and were satisfied that the meat was halal and free of disease.

Local importers are permitted to buy beef from Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and China, but they are not keen to bring in the meat because it costs more than New Zealand and Australian beef.

Muhyiddin said his ministry officials have been working with their Australian counterparts to resolve the issue of halal beef from Down Under.

*****

P/S: How about beef from India? :wink:

Dr csh · Joined: 21 Jan 2006 Posts: 425

I doubt that Malaysia will ever find a case of mad cow disease simply because it is a tricky disease to diagnose clinically with so many more common differential diagnosis.

I outlined earlier that it costs money to test, and the only 2 possible outcomes from testing is a negative test, or a positive test. One negative cow means nothing but one positive is likely to cause significant loss of public confidence in beef. So, why go looking for trouble? They should just implement certain precautions such as not importing beef from cattle older than 24 months or so, ban the practice of feeding cow nervous tissues to other cows, and prevent debilitated cows from entering the food chain, that is, not allow any cow that is not able to walk or has any sort of neurologic disorders from going into the food chain.

I agree that the Malaysian government not waste too much time effort and money and concentrate on things like Haemorrhagic Septicemia, Brucella, FMD, etc.

Dr. TanDY · Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:37 pm Post subject:

But then look at this latest news...
(not very sure how reliable is the news)

Source: Food Navigator

Date: 14 March 2006

US BSE case further blow against regaining markets

14/03/2006- The US has found another case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a blow against the country's recent success at regaining its international beef markets.

Since the closing of many countries to US beef exports in 2003, the country had managed to recover access to 82 per cent of its former markets, originally worth about $3.9 billion a year.

Japan, the largest market for US beef exports, had only resumed imports from the US in December after a ban was imposed in May 2003. The country suspended imports in January this year after the country's inspectors found banned cattle backbone material in three of 41 boxes in a shipment.

The new BSE case could push the country to extend the suspension.

The US secretary of agriculture, Mike Johanns, said yesterday that samples taken from a non-ambulatory animal on a farm in Alabama showed it had BSE. The animal was buried on the farm and it did not enter the animal or human food chains.

Based on initial information it was an older animal, quite possibly upwards of 10 years of age, indicating it would have been born prior to the implementation of the Food and Drug Administration’s 1997 feed ban, he told reporters. Older animals are more likely to have been exposed to contaminated feed circulating before the FDA’s 1997 ban on ruminant-to-ruminant feeding practices, which scientific research has indicated is the most likely route for BSE transmission.

Clark Clifford, chief veterinary medical officer at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) also said it was too early to determine whether the animal was of US or Canadian origin.

Since June 2004, all sectors of the cattle industry have been required to submit samples from about 650,000 animals from the highest risk populations and 20,000 from clinically normal, older animals, as part of the USDA's BSE surveillance program.

The current incident is the second animal to have tested positive under the program, and the third to have been found in the US.

Asked by a reporter if the second case would impact ongoing negotiations to open up the Japanese import beef market, Clifford said the US has a number of safeguards to insure its beef imports are safe. Japan has itself reported about 20 cases of BSE.

South Korea had announced prior to the result that a positive test result would shut down the scheduled reopening of its market early next month. Under the agreement reached with the US, that country reserved the right to close its market again if any more cases of BSE were discovered.

Earlier this month the discovery of a piece of bone in a shipment from Swift & Company to Hong Kong led the Chinese territory to ban beef from the company last week.

After the discovery of a BSE-infected cow in the US in 2003, $4.8 billion worth of beef and beef product exports were banned. Markets accounting for $3.8 billion have since been recovered.

On 7 March Malaysia became the latest country to open its market to US beef products. In January Taiwan reopened its markets to US beef.

In 2003, the US exported about $76 million worth of beef to Taiwan, with boneless beef products accounting for $56 million.

Taiwan reopened its market to U.S. beef in April 2005, but closed it again in June following the confirmation of a second US case of BSE.

Japan was the largest importer of US beef prior to 2003, buying up $1.4 billion worth of the meat a year.

Johanns reported he had met with the Japanese minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, Shoichi Nakagawa, in London on March 10 to discuss dropping the suspension on US beef. The USDA produced a detailed report on how banned cattle backbone material had turned up in beef shipped to Japan in January.

The USDA report said the mistake was due to poor procedures at two meat packing plants and a lack of training for USDA inspectors.

"I indicated to minister Nakagawa that we received their questions and we are in the process of completing the responses," Johanns stated. "I also indicated that we anticipate submitting those responses to Japan next week."

The second US case of BSE was detected in November 2004 in an animal born and raised on a ranch in Texas. The animal was born prior to the implementation of the 1997 feed ban. The animal was dead upon arrival at the packing plant and was then shipped to a pet food plant where it was sampled for BSE. The pet food plant did not use the animal in its product, and the carcass was destroyed in November 2004.

BSE or mad cow disease can lead to its variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), in humans. It is spread by prions, abnormally shaped proteins that originate in the neurological tissues.

BSE spreads by consumption of feed that has been contaminated by prions. The human form of the disease can be transmitted if a human being eats BSE infected meat, and through blood transfusions.

Consuming meat from infected cattle has led to the deaths of 154 people worldwide from vCJD.

Dr csh · Joined: 21 Jan 2006 Posts: 425

Posted on Wed, Mar. 15, 2006
USDA to cut back testing for mad cow disease despite new case
By LIBBY QUAID
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Despite the confirmation of a third case of mad cow disease in the United States, the government intends to scale back testing for the brain-wasting disorder.
The Department of Agriculture boosted its surveillance after finding the first case of mad cow disease in the United States in 2003. About 1,000 tests are run daily, up from about 55 daily in 2003.
The testing program detected an infected cow in Alabama last week, and further analysis confirmed Monday that the animal had mad cow disease.
Still, a reduction in testing has been in the works for months. The department’s chief veterinarian, John Clifford, mentioned it when he announced the new case of mad cow disease. “As we approach the conclusion of our enhanced surveillance program, let me offer a few thoughts,” Clifford said, explaining America will follow international standards for testing.
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns pointed out testing is not a food safety measure. Rather, it is a way to find out the prevalence of the disease.
Higher testing levels were intended to be temporary when they were announced two years ago.
Yet consumer groups argue that more animals should be tested, not fewer. Officials have not finalized new levels, but the department’s budget proposal calls for 40,000 tests annually, or about 110 daily.
“This would be a tenth of a percent of all animals slaughtered,” Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union, said Tuesday. “This starts to be so small that in our opinion, it approaches a policy of don’t look, don’t find.”
Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa said the confidence of American consumers and foreign customers is at risk. “USDA ought to continue a sound surveillance testing program to demonstrate that U.S. beef is indeed safe and that … safeguards are, in fact, working,” said Harkin, senior Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Consumer groups want every animal to be tested, said Gary Weber, head of regulatory affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association in Denver. “It’s not cost-effective; it’s not necessary,” Weber said. “The consumers we’ve done focus groups with are comfortable that this is a very rare disease and we’ve got safeguards in place.”
He mentioned government protections to keep the disease from the food chain for people or animals. “All those things add up to safety,” he said.