China's first laboratory for mad cow disease has been established
and put into operation, the State General Administration for
Quality Supervision and Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ)
announced.
The Beijing-based laboratory is part of the country's efforts to
prevent mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy
(BSE).
The laboratory, set up by the Beijing Administration for Exit-Entry
Inspection and Quarantine, occupies an area of over 100 square
meters and is fitted with equipment and technology in accordance
with traditional global practices.
"The facility here will use state-of-the-art technologies to help
fend off the disease," Ma Guiping, director of the laboratory,
said. Construction of the laboratory was launched in February. Ma
came back from Britain last year to help set up the laboratory.
Earlier this month, the laboratory checked the brain tissue of nine
cow samplings, finding no trace of the disease.
Besides checking cattle for BSE, the laboratory is also expected to
help improve the country's technology in this field.
In
an inspection of the laboratory, Li Changjiang, director of the
State General Administration for Quality Supervision and Inspection
and Quarantine, has vowed to build a first-class facility.
In
addition, exit-entry quarantine authorities across the borders have
strengthened quarantine procedures as the global panic over mad cow
disease, foot-and-mouth disease and bird flu mounts.
Mad cow disease was first diagnosed in Britain in 1986. In
response, China has banned imports of cattle and cattle products
from BSE-infected countries since 1990 and stopped imports of feed
made from animal carcasses in the European Union on January 1 this
year.
China has not detected a single case of BSE - or its human version,
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease - thus far.
However, both ordinary Chinese and the country's animal husbandry
industry are quite concerned about the matter.
In
February, the Ministry of
Agriculture checked imported cattle and domestic cows fed on
meat and bone meal from abroad and found no symptoms of BSE. The
ministry set up a National BSE Test Center in 1998.
(China Daily 06/29/2001)