Seoul to tighten rules for butchering downer cattle

By Lee Joon-seung
SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Yonhap) -- The government said Monday that it will tighten
butchering rules for downer cattle to alleviate public concerns about tainted
meat entering the food chain.
The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said it will set up
new guidelines to ban the butchering of all downer cattle outside
government-regulated slaughter houses.
The move will halt the current practice of allowing animals to be slaughtered at
farms and ranches in special cases if the process is approved by a certified
veterinarian and all mandatory tests have been conducted.
Downer cows refer to animals that cannot walk properly, usually due to physical
injuries, bloating, problems encountered while giving birth and depleted calcium
levels in the bones. Cattle in the advanced stages of mad cow disease are also
unable to walk.
The revised measures come in response to media reports over the weekend about
illegal butchering of cows that have not been properly tested for diseases that
could pose health risks to humans. A local TV station said Sunday that police
arrested several people who illegally butchered animals that were not screened
for Brucella bacteria.
Such reports raise serious doubts about the country's animal control regime and
could hurt domestic meat consumption down the line.
"At present, the government requires people who sell cows to submit multiple test
results about the animal's health, including infection or diseases such as
Brucella, microbes and residue levels of harmful chemicals before butchering," a
ministry official said.
He stressed that while the illegally butchered cattle were not tested for
Brucella, the meat from such animals would not normally pose serious risks since
the bacteria is easily killed through the regular cooking process.
Other restrictions to be put in place call for the placing of mandatory ear tags
on all milk cows that are slaughtered to facilitate animals' health check ups.
Authorities had originally planned to enforce the rules starting in late June.
The government, meanwhile, said there is little concern about locally raised
cattle being affected by mad cow disease. It pointed out that from 2002 to last
year, Seoul checked 18,662 cows for mad cow disease and found no positive cases.
South Korea plans to take the results to the Paris-based World Organization for
Animal Health co it can receive the "contained risk" classification, which would
allow the country to export its beef abroad.
At present, South Korea is categorized as an "undetermined risk" country.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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