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Last Updated: Sep 25th, 2006 - 11:36:04 |
Following the announcement made by Malaysian Department of Agriculture early March to end a two-year ban on US beef imports to the country, the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur has greeted the move and see it as a good first step toward resuming normal US beef trade with Malaysia.
The ban, which was imposed beginning December 2003 following the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or Mad Cow Disease in Washington State, followed similar sanctions by other countries, most notably Japan being US’ biggest overseas market worth over USD1.4 billion.
Celebrating the return of US beef to Malaysia, Jonathan Gressel, Agricultural Counselor at the Office of Agricultural Affairs, US Embassy noted that based on the food safety measures undertaken by the US Government and the US beef industry and taking into account the World Animal Health Organization’s guidelines, he believes that US beef suppliers should be eligible to export a wider range of products to Malaysia.
Assuring that US beef is indeed safe for consumption, Gressel pointed out several stringent measures have been adopted to safeguard the food security aspect, which according to him, is “protected by an interlocking set of safeguards”. The most important of these, he said, is the ban that keeps “specified risk materials” from out of the human food supply, including cattle parts that are most likely to carry the disease if it were present.
“The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) also imposes other controls at slaughter houses such as a ban on non-ambulatory cattle being slaughtered for human consumption. The most important animal health safeguard is the 1997 ban on ruminant-to-ruminant feeding. This measure prevents the disease from spreading among cattle and by preventing such spread contributes to increased public health protection,” he said.
Gressel noted that countries which have implemented the ruminant-to-ruminant feed bans as they did in 1997 have seen incidences of BSE drop dramatically in their cattle population. Other safeguard measures adopted also include restrictions on the importation of live ruminants and most ruminant products from countries where BSE is known to exist. He reasoned that the longer a feed ban has been in place, the fewer animals are left that would have been exposed to the contaminated feed.
To substantiate this, the USDA recently released a prevalence estimate for BSE in the United States, which is based on data gathered from not only the enhanced surveillance effort that has been underway since June 2004, but also from surveillance conducted in the United States in the last five years. They have concluded that the most likely number of cases present in the United States is between four and seven animals, out of a herd of 42 million.
“Thus we can now say, based on science, that the prevalence of BSE in the United States is extraordinarily low,” Gressel said.
Prior to the ban, Malaysia imported about 400 tons of US beef worth USD1.9 million in 2003, comprising mainly of bone-in cuts like short-rib and T-bone steaks for use in the local service industry. With this regard, Gressel is hoping that the scenario would change, especially in the number of US’ Halal certified beef producers to Malaysia.
“While the import figure is relatively small, Malaysia generally imports mainly high quality US beef for the hotel and restaurant trade. Their clientele appreciate the quality of US beef and, we believe, with higher per capita income among local consumers and increased tourism and business travel to Malaysia, we can see an expansion of our market. We also hope to see more US slaughterhouses qualify for exporting Halal beef to Malaysia in the future,” he said.
Although it would be difficult to forecast, Gressel expects that it will take between six to 12 months for the US-Malaysia beef trade to get back to the pre-ban level. He reckons that this target would be a lot faster to achieve if more US slaughterhouses were certified according to Malaysia’s Halal standards.
“I do know from various comments we have received from journalists, consumers, chefs, and restaurateurs, they all are looking forward to having US beef back on the menu in Malaysia,” he added.
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