A report released on Wednesday in the US highlighted several problems concerning the safe use of ractopamine, a controversial feed additive. US trade officials have been pressing countries — including Taiwan — to lift their import bans on meat produced with the drug.
The report, conducted by Helena Bottemiller, was produced by the Food and Environment Reporting Network, an independent and non-profit news organization providing investigative reporting on food, agriculture and environmental health.
In the article, Bottemiller first questioned the safety studies used by US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to classify ractopamine as safe 13 years ago and to set a level of acceptable residues in meat.
“The safety study conducted by the drug maker Elanco lies at the heart of the current trade dispute,” Bottemiller said.
Elanco mainly tested animals — mice, rats, monkeys and dogs — to judge how much ractopamine could be safely consumed, while only one human study was used in the safety assessment. Among the six healthy young men who participated, one was removed because his heart began beating rapidly and abnormally, Bottemiller writes.
Elanco has reported that “no adverse effects were observed for any treatments,” but, within a few years of its approval, it received hundreds of reports of sickened pigs, according to records obtained by Bottemiller from the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine.
“Since it was introduced, ractopamine had sickened or killed more than 218,000 pigs as of March 2011, more than any other animal drug on the market, a review of FDA veterinary records shows,” the report says.
The FDA ruled that ractopamine was safe and approved it for pigs in 1999, for cattle in 2003 and turkeys in 2008, Bottemiller said.
Bottemiller said there was a problem of overuse of the additive.
She quoted Temple Grandin, a professor at Colorado State University and animal welfare expert, as saying: “I’ve personally seen people overuse the drug in hogs and cattle.”
“I was in a plant once where they used too much ractopamine and the pigs were so weak they couldn’t walk. They had five or six people just dedicated to handling the lame pigs,” Grandin was quoted as saying in the report.
Another issue mentioned in the report was that “in the US, residue tests for ractopamine are limited.”
“In 2010, for example, the US did no tests on 10 billion kilograms of pork; 712 samples were taken from 12 billion kilograms of beef. Those results have not yet been released,” Bottemiller writes.
Canada and 24 other countries also approved the drug, but Taiwan, the EU, China and many others countries have banned its use, limiting US meat exports to key markets.
Bottemiller said in the report that some US food companies also avoid meat produced with the feed additive, including Chipotle restaurants, meat producer Niman Ranch and Whole Foods Markets.
The issue has also strained the US-Taiwan trade relationship.
Taiwan began testing US beef for ractopamine in January last year, prolonging a suspension in talks under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) that had been in place since 2007, when Taiwan banned US beef imports because of mad cow disease concerns.
The latest US effort to get Taiwan to revise its zero tolerance of ractopamine use was made by US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell on Jan. 20 when he said that “now that the [Jan. 14 presidential and legislative] election is over, we are hoping that Taiwan will do something on the beef issue.”
The Taiwanese government has said it would not revise its zero--tolerance policy unless the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), which sets global food-safety standards, established standards for trace levels of ractopamine.
The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
The Taiwan Experience Education Program (TEEP) has funded short-term internships in Taiwan for more than 4,500 young people from more than 40 countries since 2015, with the goal of attracting and retaining international talent, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. Fifty-five colleges launched 514 projects this year, including in fields such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, medicine and biotechnology, green energy, and sustainability, it said. The program provides research and practical internships in Taiwan for two to six months, and offers cultural exchange and networking opportunities, the ministry said. For example, National Formosa University’s Embedded System and Autopilot Laboratory developed two solar-powered drones in
GLOBAL: Although Matsu has limited capacity for large numbers of domestic tourists, it would be a great high-end destination for international travelers, an official said Lienchiang County’s (Matsu) unique landscape and Cold War history give it great potential to be marketed as a destination for international travelers, Tourism Administration Director General Chen Yu-hsiu (陳玉秀) said at the weekend. Tourism officials traveled to the outlying island for the Matsu Biennial, an art festival that started on Friday to celebrate Matsu’s culture, history and landscape. Travelers to Matsu, which lies about 190km northwest of Taipei, must fly or take the state-run New Taima passenger ship. However, flights are often canceled during fog season from April to June. Chen spoke about her vision to promote Matsu as a tourist attraction in
Taipei resident Mu Chu-hua caught some glimpses of China’s mighty military parade on YouTube on Wednesday. As she watched hypersonic missiles roll down Beijing’s Changan Avenue and troops march in lockstep, she did not feel like they posed a threat to Taiwan. Mu, a 69-year-old retiree, said she saw the parade as simply a way for Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to “say thank you to the troops.” “I thought it was quite normal,” she said. “It was very cool.” China’s military parade commemorating the end of World War II was being watched internationally for insights into Beijing’s military advances and its show
RSS