Mad cow alert won’t harm beef sales: USDA’s Johanns

By Christopher Doering and Charles Abbott

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The potential discovery of a third
U.S. case of mad cow disease should not hurt beef trade,
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said on Monday, even as
South Korea said it would block sales if it’s confirmed.

“I do not think it will have a negative impact on trade
with other countries,” Johanns told reporters during a visit to
Poland.

Final results were expected later this week from two
definitive tests for the brain-destroying disease. The U.S.
Agriculture Department announced the tests on Saturday, after a
brain sample from a suspect animal yielded an “inconclusive”
result in a less-accurate, rapid screening test.

Johanns maintained that U.S. beef is safe and importers
should not be concerned.

“Over the last two years we’ve been doing a very extended
surveillance program for food safety,” Johanns said. “What we
found is that there is virtually no BSE in the United States,”
he added, referring to the disease, whose formal name is bovine
spongiform encephalopathy.

USDA launched an enhanced testing program of cattle
believed to be at the highest risk for mad cow after the United
States discovered its first case in December 2003. The latest
suspect animal was found as part of the program, which so far
has tested more than 640,000 cattle since June 2004.

The United States has struggled to restore beef exports to
overseas markets that totaled $3.8 billion annually before mad
cow was discovered. Beef exports in 2006 are estimated at 905
million pounds, down 64 percent from 2003.

An official at South Korea’s agriculture ministry said on
Monday the nation was keeping a close watch on the test
results. Seoul agreed in January to resume importing U.S. beef
in March, but last week pushed it back until April.

“We will have no choice but to stop work on resuming
imports, if a new mad cow case in the United States is
confirmed,” the official said.

Ed Loyd, a USDA spokesman, said he would not speculate on
any potential trade impact, but added USDA would keep U.S.
trading partners updated.

“We’re going to be very transparent,” he said.

Japan, once the largest importer of U.S. beef, reopened
trade in December 2005, only to suspend shipments one month
later after inspectors found part of a calf’s backbone —
banned under U.S.-Japan rules — in a veal shipment.

And Hong Kong, which partially lifted its ban last
December, suspended U.S. beef imports after a shipment from a
plant operated by privately held Swift & Co. also contained
banned cattle parts.

The inconclusive test result was returned on Friday night.
Loyd said computer glitches delayed public announcement of the
suspect animal until late Saturday afternoon.

(Additional reporting by Ewa Krukowska in Warsaw)