2nd us case of spongiform madcow found

Australian meat, livestock and feedlotting people take note, they have found a second US cow infected with the spongiform prion madcow disease. Taiwan has banned US beef inports again and other Asian countries will likely follow.

Taiwan Reimposes Ban on U.S. Beef Imports
Saturday June 25, 7:24 am ET
Taiwan Reimposes Ban on American Beef Imports on Discovery of Second Mad Cow Case in U.S.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Taiwan on Saturday reimposed a ban on imports of American beef after the United States confirmed its second case of mad cow disease. Chen Lu-hung of the Heath Department's Food Control Section said the ban would take effect immediately.

Two months ago the island lifted a ban it had imposed in February 2004 following the discovery of the disease in a Washington state cow imported from Canada.

On Friday the U.S. Agriculture Department said tests confirmed the disease in a cow apparently born in the United States.

In the year before the ban, Taiwan imported more than $76 million in U.S. beef and beef products, according to the U.S. department.

That amounts to about 5 percent of the Japanese market, once the largest importer of U.S. beef.

Japan stopped importing American beef after the United States' discovery of its first mad cow case in December 2003.

Japan imported more than $1.5 billion in U.S. beef in 2003, according to the U.S. department.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a brain-wasting ailment that in humans causes a variant form, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The disease is a degenerative, fatal brain disorder that has killed more than 150 people, mostly in Britain, where there was an outbreak in the 1990s.