By CHARLES LEE
SEOUL, South
Korea - South Korea is on alert against the fatal "mad cow"
disease sweeping Europe.
The Ministry
of Agriculture and Forestry said Thursday it was receiving daily
reports from countries where mad cow disease, technically known
as bovine spongiform encephalitis, had broken out.
"We are
strengthening screening procedures for beef imported from affected
regions, including meat that arrives here through third countries,"
the ministry said in a statement.
Once infected
with BSE, usually through the consumption of animal feed, the
cow's brain wastes away and the neural system becomes paralyzed,
causing death. The disease can be transmitted to humans who have
eaten infected beef, with similar symptoms in the form of Creutzfeldt-Jacob
Disease or variant CJD.
Mad cow disease
was first detected in Britain in the late 1980s, and a growing
number of cases have been reported in Europe. The disease is believed
to be the result of feeding grazing animals the ground-up remains
of infected animals.
"As part
of an effort to prevent possible infection, we have placed a ban
on the use of animal feed made from powdered bones, which is the
primary source of the disease," the official said.
The government
has already been conducting extensive testing on domestic cattle
to ensure that the animals are not infected with BSE, he said.
The National
Institute of Health also denied reports that a South Korean was
suffering from the human variant of mad cow disease.
"A total
of 47 cases of CJD have been reported across the country but there
is no human case of vCJD," said Dr. Lee Jong-Koo, head of
the institute's quarantine office.
A 30-year-old
male patient was suspected of suffering from a strain of mad cow
disease, the first suspected case in South Korea.
"The
patient suffered from a rare illness with similar symptoms of
the vCJD, but unrelated to mad cow disease," Lee said.
No cases of
vCJD have been recorded in Asia, but U.N. health experts have
called for greater international precautions against the spread
of mad cow disease.
Despite the
authorities' assurance, many South Koreans were gripped by fears
that the disease was spreading. South Korea imported dried cow
and pig blood for animal feed from Europe between 1998 and last
year. The country banned beef imports from Europe in 1996 when
the mad cow scare first erupted.
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