Just as South Korea was on the verge of talking about a resumption of Canadian beef imports a meeting has been cancelled. This was after a six-year old cow (in Canada) was found to most probably have BSE.
The meeting, which was to take place in February, has been cancelled.
South Korea has not imported Canadian beef since 2003 when a cow was confirmed to have been infected with BSE.
One of the ways a cow can become infected is if it is fed with protein-based feeds. Officials are concerned that this latest case is of an animal that was born after protein-based-feeds were banned in Canada. The animal was born in Canada (eliminating the chance that the infection came from abroad).
There may be a link between the human consumption of BSE infected meat and the development of CJD (vCJD), the human equivalent of BSE.
(BSE = Mad Cow Disease)
Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today