Indonesia latest country to ban Canadian meat over mad cow
Indonesia latest country to ban Canadian meat over mad cow
Associated Press Jakarta/Washington
Indonesia has banned all imports of Canadian meat after a case of mad cow disease was reported in Canada, the Ministry of Agriculture said on Thursday.
The ministry said the move was aimed at preventing the spread of the disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, to Indonesia.
It was not immediately known how much Canadian meat is imported to Indonesia typically.
Indonesia's decision follows bans imposed on Canadian beef by the United States, Australia, South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand and Japan, which had an outbreak last year.
Canada reported on Tuesday that a cow from a farm in northern Alberta tested positive for the illness. It was the first reported case of BSE in North America in a decade.
The human form of mad cow disease is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which causes paralysis and death. Scientists believe humans develop new variants of Creutzfeldt-Jakob when they eat meat from infected animals.
A Canadian official acknowledged that his country held onto samples from a cow infected with mad cow disease for four months, possibly allowing potentially sick cows into the food chain.
Dr. Claude Lavigne, a top official at Canada's animal products directorate, said officials are searching for other cows infected with the disease.
"At this point, it's a precautionary measure," he said Wednesday in a teleconference with U.S. and Canadian reporters.
On Tuesday, Canada said it found a cow had been sick with mad cow disease, a brain-wasting illness. Officials got the test results four months after taking samples from the cow at a rendering plant.
U.S. and Canadian officials have said none of the infected animal went into the food supply.
Canada still is looking for where the 8-year-old cow was born and other cattle, including newborn calves, with which it may have been in contact. The disease can incubate in a cow for up to eight years.
Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota said Canadian officials should have promptly checked samples and released the results. "Somehow it took four months to have it tested and to tell the people in this country, and also in Canada there was a cow with mad cow disease killed in January," said Dorgan. "That's absurd."
Although Canadian and U.S. officials have declared that the food supply is safe, Consumers Union said the two governments cannot guarantee that.