Department of Health officials and academics were divided on whether people’s health can be affected by drinking milk from animals infected with mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), following the discovery of a new case in the US this week.
Citing a report by the WHO that concludes prions, infectious proteins carried by BSE-infected animals, are not carried in milk, Department of Health Deputy Minister Hsiao Mei-ling (蕭美玲) said that milk from BSE-infected animals was safe for human consumption.
Since 1997, the US has banned the use of adding recycled meat and bone meal from cows into cattle feed — a practice thought to be the cause of BSE, she said. As a result, the number of confirmed cases of BSE in cows in the US has been reduced significantly, she added.
Hsiao said the Taiwanese government would step up inspections on beef producers in the US following the new case of mad cow disease discovered in a dairy cow in California. Taiwan has the authority to inspect beef producers in the US as part of an agreement that allowed the lifting of a ban on imports of US bone-in beef in 2006.
Mad cow disease is fatal to cows and can cause a fatal brain disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) — in people who eat tainted beef.
Despite officials’ reassurance about the safety of dairy products, a number of doctors said a more advanced test developed for mad cow disease has shown results that contradict the WHO report.
Chen Sheng-shun (陳勝順), honorary vice president of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital’s Kaohsiung branch, said a Swiss scientist developed a more accurate test for mad cow disease in 2007 that found prion-related proteins (PrPC), a precursor of the pathological prion proteins, in the milk of BSE-infected animals.
The precursor cannot be completely eliminated even when heated to extreme high temperatures, Chen said.
This evidence suggests that stricter quality standards should be applied to dairy products, he added.
Chiang Shou-shan (江守山), a nephrologist at Shin-Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital, also urged the government to adopt stricter safety standards on beef and dairy products.
He said domestic cases of classic CJD had risen considerably since the government lifted the ban on US in-bone beef imports.
Since classic CJD — which is unrelated to beef consumption — shows similar symptoms to vCJD, this rise of classic CJD cases in Taiwan may be due to a mistaken diagnosis of vCJD, he said, urging the authorities to probe more deeply into the matter.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
Weather conditions across Taiwan are expected to remain stable today, but cloudy to rainy skies are expected from tomorrow onward due to increasing moisture in the atmosphere, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Daytime highs today are expected to hit 25-27°C in western Taiwan and 22-24°C in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, data on the CWA website indicated. After sunset, temperatures could drop to 16-17°C in most parts of Taiwan. For tomorrow, precipitation is likely in northern Taiwan as a cloud system moves in from China. Daytime temperatures are expected to hover around 25°C, the CWA said. Starting Monday, areas
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
Taiwan has recorded its first fatal case of Coxsackie B5 enterovirus in 10 years after a one-year-old boy from southern Taiwan died from complications early last month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. CDC spokesman Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) told a news conference that the child initially developed a fever and respiratory symptoms before experiencing seizures and loss of consciousness. The boy was diagnosed with acute encephalitis and admitted to intensive care, but his condition deteriorated rapidly, and he passed away on the sixth day of illness, Lo said. This also marks Taiwan’s third enterovirus-related death this year and the first severe
RSS