The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said on the 13th it confirmed the occurrence of atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, mad cow disease) in Ireland. Accordingly, it suspended import quarantine for beef from Ireland.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine said on Apr. 10 (local time) that, under Ireland's BSE surveillance program, tests by the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory confirmed atypical BSE in an aged (9-year-old) cow. It added that the cow was discarded and was not supplied to the market.
The ministry said atypical BSE is a disease that occurs very rarely and naturally in aged cattle, adding, "There have been no human infection cases." It also noted, "It is different from classical BSE, which occurs through the consumption of contaminated feed."
In addition to the quarantine suspension measure, the ministry requested information from the Irish government regarding the occurrence of atypical BSE. It plans to review whether to lift the measure based on information to be provided by the Irish government going forward.
A total of 358 tons (t) of beef from Ireland was imported into Korea last year. This is about 0.08% of Korea's total beef imports (473,000 tons). The ministry said there are currently no shipments that have been imported and are awaiting quarantine domestically.