Consumers’ Foundation demands prion tests on US beef imports
Central News Agency 2010-01-19
Consumers’ Foundation demands prion tests on U.S. beef imports
By Y.F. Low
Taipei, Jan. 19 (CNA) — The Consumers’ Foundation demanded Tuesday that the government include prion tests in its inspection of U.S. beef imports to detect any possible bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) contamination of the products.
The foundation and like-minded groups will jointly submit a formal proposal in this regard to the Department of Health, according to foundation chairman Hsieh Tien-jen.
BSE, or mad cow disease, is a fatal, brain degenerating disease in cattle. The rare disease is known as new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. Scientists believe that it may be transmitted to human beings who eat the brains or spinal cords of infected animals.
The infectious agent in BSE is believed to be a specific type of misfolded protein called a prion. Those prion proteins carry the disease in transmission between individuals and cause deterioration of the brain.
According to Hsieh, the risk of BSE contamination in U.S. beef imports has increased because imports of bone-in beef from cattle younger than 30 months are now allowed under the beef trade protocol signed Oct. 22 between Taiwan and the United States.
In six months time, the two sides are expected to review the possibility of further opening Taiwan’s market to boneless or bone-in beef from older cattle, which would further raise the risk of BSE contamination, he said.
Commenting on a referendum drive promoted by the foundation to reject high-risk beef products from the United States, Hsieh said his foundation and allied groups are likely to expand their cooperation with other civic organizations with the goal of collecting 1 million signatures in the second phase of the campaign.
The campaign will be launched simultaneously in the northern, central and southern regions, and there is no plan to work with political parties or groups to push the cause, he said.
The proposed referendum will ask voters to veto the government’s decision to open Taiwan’s market to U.S. bone-in beef, ground beef and bovine offal and spines, and demand that the government renegotiate a beef trade protocol with the United States.
The Consumers’ Foundation has insisted on pressing ahead with the drive, despite the passage of an amendment to the Act Governing Food Sanitation earlier this month to reinstate a ban on these products, except for bone-in beef.
