South Korea demands more tests before buying US beef

South Korea says it will delay resuming beef imports from the US until further tests are conducted to determine the age of a cow found to be infected with mad-cow disease in Alabama last week.

The nation's agriculture ministry canceled plans to visit the US on March 19 and needs "scientific and objective" evidence of the cow's age before it will resume imports, South Korea's chief veterinary officer Kim Chang Seob said last week at a press briefing at the ministry in Gwacheon.

South Korea, which was the third-largest buyer of US beef, agreed in January to resume imports from the US, lifting a two-year ban, providing no new cases of mad-cow disease were found in cattle born after April 1998. The US Department of Agriculture said the cow was born before 1997.

"We have not officially received notice from the USDA," Kim said. "We need scientific and objective data."

Kim said if the tests determine that the Alabama cow was 10 years old, South Korea will send inspectors to check on all 33 slaughterhouses that export beef from the US. Previously the Korean inspectors were only going to visit some of them before resuming imports.

The earliest beef imports will resume is May, Kim said.

More than 60 nations banned US beef imports after the first case of the disease was detected in 2003. Most of those nations have since eased their bans. The case in Alabama was the third U. S. case of mad-cow disease.

- BLOOMBERG