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

Posted on: Monday, 13 March 2006, 14:11 CST

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)

Source: REUTERS

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