South Korea bars Creekstone beef

South Korea said it will refuse further beef shipments from Kansas meat packer Creekstone Farms Premium Beef after finding a 10-millimeter bone shard in a shipment from the plant. Other beef suppliers will not be affected.

SEOUL (AP)--South Korea said Nov. 24 it would suspend imports of U.S. beef from a Kansas slaughterhouse after government inspectors found a tiny piece of bone in a shipment.

In a statement, Agriculture and Forestry Ministry said that the shipment containing the bone originated from Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, a slaughterhouse and meat packer in Arkansas City, Kansas.

Kim Chang-seob, the ministry's chief veterinary officer, said beef imports from facilities in other states won't be affected.

South Korea, which had banned U.S. beef for almost three years over bovine spongiform encephalopathy fears, in September said it would allow in shipments under strict regulations, including only allowing boneless cuts of beef.

In January, South Korea agreed to resume American beef imports on a limited basis--boneless meat only from cattle younger than 30 months old, because of beliefs that some material inside bones could be dangerous to consume and the younger animals are safer from BSE.

The ministry designated 36 U.S. slaughterhouses to handle meat for export to South Korea after ensuring that they met required sanitary and safety measures.

The first shipments of beef arrived last month, though so far none of the U.S. meat has appeared on store shelves as it goes through a rigorous quarantine process.

The ministry said that the bone discovered in a shipment that arrived on Oct. 30, was found detached from the meat and wasn't considered as "specified risk material".

Specific risk material can carry BSE, such as the vertebral column, or backbone, brain, skull, eyes, spinal cord and other nerve tissue.

Still, the ministry said the beef would either be returned to the U.S. or discarded because the bone, measuring 10 millimeters in length, was found in a shipment of beef.

The ministry's National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service also "expressed concerns about the safety of U.S. beef" and said it will urge Washington to thoroughly abide by sanitary conditions.

South Korea shut its doors to U.S. beef imports in December 2003 after the first reported U.S. case of BSE. The country was the third-largest foreign market for American beef before the ban.

Scientists believe BSE spreads when farmers feed cattle recycled meat and bones from infected animals. It is also believed to be linked to a rare, fatal human variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Date: 11/29/06

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