26 April 2004 06:48
Russia to ban live cattle imports
MOSCOW. April 26 (Interfax) - The Russian veterinary service plans to ban imports of live cattle starting May 17 from
all countries in which cases of BSE, or mad cow disease, have been registered.
Russia's main veterinary inspector Yevgeny Nepoklonov told Interfax that this decision was made because of the
fact that BSE is spreading throughout the world, and Russia, as an importer of live cattle, is at risk of having the
disease brought into the country.
Nepoklonov said that in 2003, BSE had been registered in the U.S.
and Canada, and the overall number of countries at risk of being
He said that the situation with BSE in Europe indicates that the disease is still spreading, despite thorough efforts
directed at preventing the spreading of the disease from country to country and the fact that the European Union's
veterinary agencies are paying a great deal of attention to the problem. Nepoklonov said that this shows that importing
cattle from countries where BSE has previously been registered to countries that did not already have the problem would
be extremely risky.
Russia has banned the import of meat from Great Britain and some
regions of other European countries where BSE cases have been
infected with BSE increased to 24. Out of 15 EU countries, only Sweden managed to avoid any BSE cases on its
territory.
"All of this allows us to say that the measures directed against eliminating BSE are not efficient enough. This
may be related to the presence of an alleged alternative way for spreading the infection, or to the insufficiency of
methods used to detect the disease at the early stages of development," said Nepoklonov.
BSE was first registered in Great Britain in 1986. Over the last several years, the disease has been discovered in
various European and Asian countries. In total, over 180,000 cases of the disease have been registered. Scientists have
found that consuming the meat of infected animals may result in developing the incurable Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Over
100 people in Europe, mainly in Great Britain, have died from the disease.
registered. Only boneless beef is imported to Russia from most European countries. [RU EUROPE EEU ASIA EMRG TRD] aa
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[Interfax] |
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