South Korea: Quarantine suspended due to outbreak of atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Ireland

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (Minister Song Mei-ryeong, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs) announced that it has confirmed the occurrence of atypical bovine spongi-form encephalopathy (BSE) in Ireland and will suspend import quarantine of Irish beef as of September 23 (Tuesday) in accordance with the “Irish Beef Import Sanitary Conditions.” * Unlike typical BSE, which occurs through the consumption of contaminated feed, atypical BSE occurs very rarely naturally in cattle aged 8 years or older, and there have been no cases of human infection. On September 19 (local time), the Irish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced that it had confirmed the occurrence of atypical bovine spongi-form encephalopathy (BSE) in an elderly (15-year-old) cow that died on a farm as a result of testing according to Ireland’s regular BSE surveillance program, and that the cow was disposed of and not supplied to the ...