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Ban remains on Japanese beef but US beef OK
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Posted on Nov 26 2004
The Northern Marianas still bans the entry on beef and other ruminant products from Japan due to confirmed cases of mad cow disease in the Asian country, but trade with the United States on these products remains normal.
CNMI veterinarian Dr. Ike Dela Cruz noted that the recent suspected case of mad cow in the United States turned out to be false.
“There is no ban on beef products from the U.S. mainland,” Dela Cruz said.
A suspected case of mad cow was reported earlier this week, which would have turned out to be the second case in the United States had it turned out to be positive. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, however, declared the cow it suspected of carrying the mad cow disease to be free from the illness.
The first case of mad cow disease in the United States was found in a Canadian-born Holstein at a slaughterhouse near Moses Lake, Washington, according to an Associated Press report.
The disease, known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, attacks an animal’s nervous system. Food contaminated with BSE can afflict people with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare disease that is usually fatal.
The AP report said more than 40 countries almost immediately cut off imports of U.S. beef and more than 700 additional cattle in Washington state, Oregon and Idaho were killed as a precaution. Exports account for about $3.8 billion of America’s $40 billion a year beef industry.
Wholesalers in the CNMI import beef and other meat products from the United States. Dela Cruz said the CNMI could also freely import beef products from Australia and New Zealand.
The veterinarian said only beef and other ruminant products from Japan are banned from entering the Commonwealth. Dela Cruz said there were about 12 or 13 positive cases in Japan in the past few months.
“We can still get it [mad cow disease] from Japan,” Dela Cruz said.
The veterinarian declared the Northern Marianas, including its domestic cattle industry, mad-cow free.
