Impact of mad cow report played down

Impact of mad cow report played down

Sari P. Setiogi and A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The temporary ban on beef imports from the United States due to a
report of mad cow disease will have little impact on Indonesia's
hotel and restaurant business, a businesswoman says.

"We will follow the government policy suspending U.S. beef
imports. No hotels and restaurants will use U.S. beef in their
cooking temporarily," chairwoman of the Indonesian Hotels and
Restaurants Association (PHRI) Yanti Sukamdani Hardjoprakoso told
The Jakarta Post on Friday.

"Only a few dishes need U.S. beef and can be altered. For
sirloin and tenderloin steaks, we can use Australian or even
local beef," Yanti said.

She said that way before the mad cow disease report in the
U.S., Indonesia had switched its beef imports to countries such
as Australia and New Zealand and even used local products as the
prices were more reasonable.

"Indonesians, as well as other Asians, eat more chicken and
fish than red meat. I don't believe mad cow disease will have a
large impact on consumers," she said.

Yanti said she believed that U.S. beef importers and suppliers
would understand the situation.

"It might have a serious impact on U.S. beef grill
restaurants, but they are small in number. I also believe that if
they ultimately decide to switch to non-U.S. beef, consumers will
understand," she said.

Separately, Pos Hutabarat, director general of international
trade at the Ministry of Industry and Trade told the Post that
Indonesia would retain the ban until the United States could
prove its beef was safe for consumption.

Indonesia joined more than a dozen countries in slapping a
temporary ban on U.S. beef imports after the United States
confirmed its first case of mad cow disease.

Indonesia's decision followed confirmation by a British
laboratory on Thursday that a Holstein cow in Washington state
had the brain-wasting disease known as bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.

BSE eats holes in the brains of cattle. It ravaged Europe's
cattle industry in 2001 and is thought to cause the fatal variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in humans who eat infected meat.

Other countries that have temporarily banned U.S. beef include
China, Thailand, Malaysia, Russia, South Africa, Jamaica, Chile,
Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Mexico.

Meanwhile, the director for animal transmitted diseases of the
Ministry of Health, Thomas Suroso, claimed that a team consisting
of experts from various government institutions was currently
researching mad cow disease.

"Yes, we are conducting research in some places. We have taken
several samples," Thomas told the Post, adding that team members
included experts from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of
Agriculture.

However, he refused to mention details of the research or when
it would be completed.

Thomas explained that the disease was caused by a kind of
protein called prion found in the brain or meat of an infected
cow. There have been no cases of mad cow disease reported in
Indonesia.

He said if a contaminated cow's brain or meat was eaten by
humans, it could degenerate and damage the human brain cells in
the long term.

"The incubation period of the disease could be 20 years. So
the disease is not immediately detectable in humans," he said.