The US Meat Export Federation invited an expert to endorse the safety of US beef in the wake of local misgivings about its consumption, after the recent confirmation of a second case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, in the US.
Mel Kramer, an epidemiologist who previously served in the US Department of Health and Human Services, said that mad cow disease is caused and spread by an abnormal form of a protein called a "prion."
Experiments in the UK showed that meat from animals under 30 months of age has yet to develop fully, and that there is no possibility of people being infected after eating it, Kramer said.
He said that only by eating infected tissue, particularly from the brain, of a sick cow can a person get infected. There is no safety concern about US beef currently sold in Taiwan, he said.
Taiwan reimposed a ban on imports of US beef last week, although the Department of Health said that there was no need to recall the beef that was already on local store shelves.
Local authorities first banned imports of US beef, live cattle and all related products in December 2003 after the discovery in Washington State of a single BSE case, the first reported US case of mad cow disease.
The ban on US boneless beef from animals under 30 months of age was lifted on April 16.
Taiwan purchased US$325 million worth of US beef and related products in 2003 and was the sixth-largest importer of US beef before imposing the ban in December 2003. Since then, Australian beef has replaced US beef in the domestic market.
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