Seoul to tighten rules for butchering downer cattle

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details from paras 2)
By Lee Joon-seung
SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Yonhap) -- The government said Monday 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 push to
enforce new guidelines starting in the first half of 2010 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.
This rule was set up to allow cattle owners to dispose of animals that could not
be moved or would have died en route to butchering facilities.
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 proposed measures come in response to media reports of the illegal butchering
of 41 cows that were not been properly tested for diseases. A local TV station
said Sunday that police have detained and questioned several people who may have
bought downer cattle from farmers and butchered these animals without checking
for Brucella bacteria.
The meat of these animals were mostly sold in Busan, South Korea's largest port
city.
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 illegally butchered cattle were not tested for Brucella,
there is no evidence to suggest the meat is harmful since the bacteria is not
linked to downer cows.
Humans can get Brucellosis by eating and drinking tainted meat and unsterilized
milk or by coming in contact with sick animals. The bacteria can be easily killed
by normal cooking and treated with the prolonged use of anti-biotics.
Other changes call for more rigid cross-checking of animals and health records,
and to make it mandatory for all milk cows to have ear tags. Tags help inspectors
track the history of the animal.
Authorities had originally planned to enforce the ear tag rule starting in late
June.
The official the ministry's livestock bureau, said that in the long-run, the
government may take steps to appropriate extra funds to buy all downer cattle
from owners so such animals will not reach the market.
The government, meanwhile, said there is little concern about locally raised
cattle being affected by mad cow disease since every effort is made to screen
animals for the fatal illness. It pointed out that between 2002 and 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 so 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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