RI denies buying UK animal feed

RI denies buying UK animal feed

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Feedmillers Association, seeking
to dampen new fears that Indonesia could be hit by mad cow
disease due to the use of tainted feed, said Indonesia had never
imported cattle feed or raw materials for cattle feed from
countries with recorded mad cow disease, including Britain.

"We rarely or almost never import feed products or raw
material for feed from European countries, including Britain.

"There might be some feed imports from Britain, but I think
they are all used for pets, nothing for cattle. I suggest you
check with pet feed sellers here," association secretary general
Wahyudi Mohtar told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Scientists in Britain earlier said Indonesia as well as
Thailand, Taiwan and Sri Langka potentially could become victims
of mad cow disease due to the use of tainted animal feed imported
from Britain.

Mohtar said local traders or cattle farmers preferred buying
locally produced feed, because it was cheaper and better in terms
of freshness.

He said local feed producers buy corn from the United States
and Argentina, soybean meal from the U.S. and India and bone and
meat from New Zealand and Australia as raw materials to make
animal feed.

He also said local feed producers always coordinated their
import plans with the Directorate General of Animal Husbandry,
which had the list of countries from which they are not allowed
to import.

Britain, which banned the feeding of processed animal
carcasses to cattle in 1986, reportedly exported much of its
stocks of feed to Europe and beyond until a decade later when the
trade was stopped.

Britain's customs data shows that Indonesia started importing
general feedstuffs from Britain in 1991, with the largest
consignment of over 20,060 tons in 1993, compared with less than
six tons into Germany that year.

Germany is now one of the countries which has been hit by mad
cow disease.

Mad cow disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a
brain-wasting disease that has afflicted thousands of cattle in
Europe and can be transmitted to humans who eat the diseased
animals. The human form of BSE, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, has
killed more than 80 people in Britain and two in France since
1996.

The ministry of agriculture has sparked controversy by
allowing the importation of beef from the Republic of Ireland
starting last month despite moves by many countries to ban beef
imports from Europe.

But, Budi Tri Akoso, director of the health department at the
ministry, maintained that beef imports from Ireland were free
from mad cow disease.

He said prior to the issuance of the decree allowing the
importation of beef from the Ireland, the ministry had sent a
team to ensure that the beef was free from mad cow disease.

In order to reduce the risk, the government would only allow
the import of "deboned meat", which do not include brains, nerves
or lymphatic tissues, Budi said.

He said in 1996, the ministry banned all imports of beef and
some derivative products, including medicine and cosmetics, from
countries in Western Europe with recorded mad cow disease.

Meanwhile, in Thailand, officials at the livestock department
said on Thursday they saw no chance of so-called mad cow disease
spreading to Thailand, adding Thailand had banned imports of
animal feed from countries hit by the disease.

"No mad cow disease has been found in Thailand," Prachak
Thiratinrat, a director at the livestock department's disease
control division, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

In Japan, the Agriculture Ministry said an outbreak of mad cow
disease is unlikely in Japan, as the country has taken sufficient
preventive measures.

"We have taken preventive measures since 1990 and we have had
no reports of the disease in Japan to date. It is quite unlikely
that the disease will spread to Japan in the future," said an
official at the ministry's Livestock Industry Bureau.

Japan imposed a partial ban on imports of beef and beef
products from Britain in 1990 to prevent the spread of mad cow
disease. A total ban was adopted in 1996.

Japan tightened its regulations further, banning imports of
beef, processed beef and related cattle products from the
European Union from January.

Meanwhile, the Australia New Zealand Food Authority said that
Australia has extended its tests for any evidence of mad cow
disease to dairy and other products as part of efforts to remain
free of the disease.

The precautionary tests follow a ban from January 8 on beef
products from more than two dozen countries in Europe because of
an outbreak of mad cow disease.