American Beef Getting Closer To Getting Back On Taiwan Menus
Surely the most costly cow ever to trod upon American soil was the one found in Washington State six years ago. The discovery that it had Mad Cow disease led to U.S. beef being banned around the world, costing billions upon billions of dollars.
One-by-one, country-by-country, American Beef has fought its way back. Now it is hoping Taiwan does not turn out to be as volatile as was South Korea.
Harry Tseng, director general of the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Department of North American Affairs, is optimistic about fully opening his country’s market to U.S. beef before 2009 ends.
Stephen M. Young, the top U.S. envoy to Taiwan, has repeatedly urged Taiwan government to make a science-based decision on fully opening its market to U.S. beef.
All of Taiwan's scientific review and technical work indicates that U.S. beef does not pose a threat of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, Young tells the Taiwan News.
U.S. de-boned beef from cattle under age 30 months was allowed back into Taiwan in 2005, but local government continued the broader ban after a second Mad Cow was found in the U.S.
In South Korea, the Seoul Central Prosecutor's Office indicted four producers and a script writer of the "PD's Notepad," an investigative television program aired on MBC for airing a story on the Mad Cow threat from U.S. beef.
First, we found its "Prion Basics" a great feature, especially the listing of the various prion diseases and the mammals they affect. (See below). Second, we wanted to call attention to the open competition the Institute has for prion research. Deadlines are coming up, and awards of up to $150,000 sound pretty good even if paid in Canadian funds. Go 
gripped the world in the 1990s. In his 1997 book "Deadly Feasts," Richard Rhodes warned that the human variant of mad cow, known as vCJD, might kill as many as 500,000 people a year in Britain alone. So far, total confirmed cases world-wide run to around 150."
You've got a couple more days to submit written comments to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on the new so-called "BSE" rule requiring livestock renderers and animal feed manufacturers to remove the brain and spinal cord from cows 30 months and older.
The prion protein, which is associated with the causes of CJD, is normally used in the brain to maintain brain health but can contribute to nerve damage should it get tangled up with amyloid-beta, another protein known as the chief suspect of causing Alzheimer's disease.
Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, has often made life difficult for the government in London. He is doing so again by supporting Christine Lord, the mother seeking answers from the government about her son Andy's death from Variant Creutzfeldt Jakob (vCJD).
The new regulations bans the use of these carcasses in livestock feed if the cattle are over 30 months of age. This federal regulation is intended to prevent the spread of BSE or mad cow disease and will likely result in increased disposal costs for livestock producers.
Japan has suspended imports from a former Smithfield Beef Group meatpacking plant in Wisconsin after it found meat that could not be verified as coming from cattle aged 20 months or less, the farm ministry said on Thursday.
Scientists in the United Kingdom say there could be a "second wave" of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease -- the human form of the mad cow disease -- after discovering that some people have a genetic predisposition to the disease.
challenge, and instead we found the Denver-based U.S. Meat Export Federation is focused on turning Japanese government opinion against so much BSE testing. We learned the USMEF hosted a conference in Tokyo just last week with this focus:
Standards Agency of the European Commission. Under current regulations, the brains of all cattle aged over 30 months are tested for BSE before the beef is allowed into the food chain. The plan is to raise the testing age to 48 months from next January.
in a Washington State cattle herd cost U.S. beef exporters $11 billion between 2004 and 2007, a new report says. 
Researchers have discovered that genetic mutation may sometimes cause mad cow disease, raising hopes that breeders will be able to use the information to eliminate one avenue for the disease.
Case Western Law Professor Jonathan Adler writes on the widely read blog called 
The six-year old Alberta dairy cow found to be suffering from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in February was the victim of infected feed, according to the official investigation.
Since Gambetti's team wrote a paper describing an initial 11 cases referred to his centre between 2002 and 2006 (Annals of Neurology, vol 63, p 697), another five have come to light. "So it is possible that it could be just the tip of the iceberg," Gambetti says.
Yet only this past weekend there was another protest in downtown Seoul, which attracted 50,000 people. It was another production of the People’s Association for Measures Against Mad Cow Disease and brought out religious groups including Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists and Won Buddhists, as well as the opposition United Democratic Party, Democratic Labor Party, New Progressive Party and the Renewal of Korea Party. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and university students also participated.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced Monday afternoon that it has confirmed the country's 13th case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a cow in the western province of British Columbia.