|
A senior U.S. Department of Agriculture official on Sunday denied suspicions on the safety of U.S. beef in Korea. Richard Raymond, undersecretary for food safety, at a press conference said, ¡°We've never had a person in the U.S. be diagnosed with vCJD (the human form of BSE or mad cow disease) for eating American beef. So if it's zero, and chances are double, double zero is still zero.¡±
Raymond stressed that the U.S. was classified as ¡°controlled risk¡± by the World organization for animal health (OIE) in May last year, and that only three cows had ever been found infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Considering the fact that 34 million cattle are being slaughtered in the U.S. per year, the infection rate is extremely low, he added.
On criticism that Korea¡¯s right to quarantine was violated in the bilateral agreement, Raymond said, "It provides for Korea's sovereign right to conduct an audit of our facilities and to work with U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection authorities if any food safety concerns are identified." He reiterated that both OIE and U.S. regulations require extensive investigation and immediate correction when a food safety risk is detected.
Regarding a rumor that Koreans are genetically more vulnerable to mad cow disease, Raymond, a medical doctor himself, said, ¡°That¡¯s a study I believe that deserves international examination. It goes beyond my level of training." Asked about a report that one patient in Virginia died of variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, Raymond replied that a preliminary investigation by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the cause of death was not vCJD.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
