China's dairy products are safe and the overwhelming majority of
Chinese cows are free of tuberculosis (TB), the country's animal
health watchdog and industry insiders said on Thursday.
Jia Youling, director of the Ministry of Agriculture's
Animal Husbandry Bureau, Thursday said China's cows are in sound
health on the whole, despite sporadic reports of some infections
such as tuberculosis.
The director's comments came the day after a TB-hit dairy farm
was closed in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong
Province.
More than 400 sick cows from the Guangzhou Yunyan Cattle Farm
were slaughtered on Wednesday, the provincial animal husbandry
bureau said.
The disease has been reported in some other parts of China, but
none of the other cases has been as serious as that in Guangzhou,
Jia said without giving details.
The official said the Ministry of Agriculture had released a
technical code on the prevention of bovine TB, which requires
veterinary departments or animal quarantine agencies to conduct
regular vaccinations and inspections of cows every spring and
autumn to discover and deal with any cases of bovine tuberculosis
in dairies.
Hao Zhixiong, director of the Hohhot Animal Husbandry and
Non-Staple Foodstuffs Office, said the capital of north China's
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region -- a leading dairy producer --
discovered some TB-infected cows earlier this year. But he did not
say how many animals were infected.
The cows were treated and their milk was not allowed to enter
the market, Hao said.
Yu Yedong, director of the Guangdong Animal Epidemic Prevention
Station, said on Thursday: "No one has been reported as having been
infected with tuberculosis by drinking milk or other dairy
products, but we have to remain vigilant."
Zhao Fengru, an expert with the Beijing Dairy Cattle Center,
said she believed that milk and other dairy products in the Chinese
capital are safe for consumption because they have to go through a
whole series of quality inspections.
The Beijing Sanyuan Food Co Ltd said all its source materials
for its dairy products come from qualified farms and that the
company's state-of-the-art quality-control equipment will weed out
any substandard raw milk.
Wang Dingmian, director of the Guangzhou Dairy Association, said
the government should subsidize farmers who have to slaughter their
cows for reasons of epidemic control.
This would reduce the chance of farmers failing to notify the
authorities of animal epidemics, as was the case at the Guangzhou
Yunyan Cattle Farm.
(China Daily July 25, 2003)