By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter

Beef from cattle 30 months of age and older will be available here soon as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a strengthened regulation on animal feed against use of animal protein.

The U.S. food-governing agency announced a finalized rule Wednesday barring certain cattle parts from all animal feed, including pet food to protect animals and consumers against bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease.

Imports of bone-in-beef products from cattle slaughtered under 30 months of age are already allowed on the Korean market. South Korea agreed with the United States on revising sanitary condition of beef imports last week.

Beef from cattle older than 30 months will be possible after the United States applies intensified rules on animal protein use in cattle recommended by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), according to the agreement, which now permits additional imports of U.S. beef with the FDA notice. It is expected to be available in South Korea in early June.

Under the new measure, materials including brains and spinal cords from cattle 30 months of age and older can't be used in animal feed production. They have the highest risk for carrying the agent thought to cause the brain-wasting disease.

``This FDA action serves to further protect the U.S. cattle population from the already low risk of BSE,'' Bernadette Dunham, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, said on its Web site. ``The new rule strengthens existing safeguards.''

The new measure is based on the FDA's 1997 feed regulations, which prohibited the use of certain animal proteins in cattle feed. It will be effective from next April.

The revision, however, is still much less strict than regulations in the EU and Japan as it still leaves room for the United States to make use of some specified risk materials (SRMs) in animal feed production.

SRMs, which include brains, skulls, eyes, tongues and spinal cords of animals older than 30 months, reportedly have a higher risk of transmitting the fatal mad cow disease to humans

Currently, the EU imposes a rule that requires SRMs from cattle older than 12 months to be unconditionally disposed off, while Japan doesn't allow any SRMs from cattle of any age to be consumed.

``This time, we can give the U.S. some credit because these were recommendations from the OIC, and the country is also showing strong will to put forward the intensified animal feed rules,'' said an official of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

hckim@koreatimes.co.kr