CAN broadens prohibition against imports that could open the way to "mad cow disease"

Lima, Feb. 16. With the adoption of Resolution 480, the Andean Community (CAN) extended the coverage of the prohibition against importing any products from Germany, Denmark, Spain, and Italy that are capable of spreading the "mad cow disease" existing in those countries.

This measure, adopted on February 9 and published yesterday, broadens the prohibition to encompass imports from 13 countries; these include, in addition to the four already cited: Belgium, France, the Republic of Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom (Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey), and Switzerland.

Resolution 480 updates the Basic Catalog of Plagues and Diseases of Animals Foreign to the Andean Subregion with regard to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), better known as the "mad cow disease."

Although the Andean countries had previously adopted preventive measures on an individual basis, Resolution 344 approved by the then Board of the Cartagena Agreement had added the "mad cow disease" to the CAN’s Basic Catalog in 1993.

That provision was subsequently updated through Resolution 447 of 1997, which stipulated additional preventive measures prohibiting the importation of bovine cattle and their products and by-products from countries affected by the "mad cow disease," with the exception of milk and dairy products.

Later, in 1998, General Secretariat Resolution 146 added the semen of bovine cattle to the exceptions to that prohibition, on condition that it comply with the requirements specified in the Resolution.

CAN General Secretariat officials maintained that the existence of these resolutions "showed that the Andean countries possess binding legal Community instruments that, despite the fact that this disease does not exist in the subregion, prohibit the importation of bovine cattle, products, and by-products that are capable of introducing BSE."

The Basic Catalog prohibits the importation from countries affected by the disease, of live bovine cattle, products and by-products, including concentrated food products and meals containing meat, blood, and bone.

The "mad cow disease" is one of the transmissible encephalopathies that affect man and animals. Its average incubation period in animals is from 4 to 5 years, but may be longer in bovine cattle that appear to be healthy.

It is manifested in apprehension, fear, and excessive jumpiness, abnormal movements, trembling, and a lack of coordination in walking, among other things. The disease is incurable and after a period of two weeks brings on the death of the animal.

Several cases have been recorded in human beings in two European countries, of what has been called a variation of the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, whose most common form is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy that tends to appear spontaneously in one of every million persons.

The variation, however, which is transmitted by sick bovine cattle, has a shorter incubation period and a course that also leads to the patient’s death.

Unlike other transmissible diseases, BSE is not caused by a bacterial, viral, or parasitic infection with a genetic code included in its AND. Rather, it is a protein that is found in nervous cells, which becomes abnormal or a prion and takes on the quality of being able to invade and reproduce in a healthy animal.

The fact that it is only a protein molecule makes it highly resistant to agents that destroy germs, like disinfectants and high temperature, and even boiling water.

The disease in bovine cattle possibly originated because the tissues containing prions of animals infected with transmissible spongiform encephalopathy entered into the animal food chain.

This probably occurred as a result of the so-called digestor, by which animal carcasses, parts, and organs condemned during slaughterhouse inspections are treated with heat to make various products like meat and bone meals used in preparing animal feed.

When the "mad cow disease" became more prevalent, sick bovine cattle quite possibly became a part of the animal food chain, thus worsening the problem.

Bovine cattle were fed contaminated food products capable of producing BSE because of the prions’ resistance to heat and solvents.