An agreement was reached on April 18th between the Lee (South Korea) and Bush administrations to lift a six-year ban on American beef from the South Korean market. The ban was instituted in 2003 following the discovery that an American cow had contracted Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), which is better known as mad cow disease. The consumption of specified risk materials (SRMs) from cattle contaminated with BSE is linked to a dangerous neuro-degenerative disease known as Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). Many people know it as the “human strain” of mad cow disease.

This article is an attempt to summarize the Korean fears surrounding the resumption of American beef imports. I must warn my readers that I approached this topic from a biased perspective based, more or less, on scientific facts rather than high-strung emotionalism. Unfortunately, the Korean peninsula has been gripped in a panic, which leaves little room for rational thought or the simple acceptance of scientific facts. So what’s the “beef” with American beef?

Concerns:

American beef is tainted with mad cow disease. South Koreans do not want to import the beef because it is contaminated and dangerous.

This fear is completely unfounded. Americans eat American beef everyday without a second thought. In the history of the United States, there have been 3 isolated cases of mad cow disease. None of the three cattle were raised for consumption. On top of that, one of the three infected cows had come from Alberta, Canada and was infected before it arrived on American soil. All three infected cows were dealt with promptly and none made it anywhere near consumer platters. To date, there is not a single human being on Earth who has contracted vCJD, the human strain of mad cow disease, from American beef.

Americans do not eat beef that is more than 30 months old. Beef that is older than 30 months is more susceptible to mad cow disease. The Korean government is only importing beef that is older than 30 months old.

1. This fear presupposes that American beef is tainted with mad cow disease. Since we know otherwise…it seems pretty ridiculous to be concerned about this issue.
2. The government has renegotiated the deal and Koreans will NOT receive beef older than 30 months old despite OECD approval and USDA safety standards which are among the highest in the world.
3. It is impossible to contract vCJD unless you eat SRMs from a cow that has been infected with BSE. Even if you consume meat from a 30-month old cow infected with BSE, you will not contract vCJD if it has been cooked properly.
4. I don’t know where the rumor, that Americans do not consume meat over 30 months old, started. However, the fact is, we do consume beef 30 months and older…in vast quantities. It is not illegal as some would claim either.
5. Noting all of the above information, I’d like you to put this issue into perspective by noting this fact: beef older than 30 months accounted for less than 2% of the total we sent to South Korea in 2003 before beef imports were halted.

South Koreans are more genetically susceptible to catching vCJD than Westerners.

Yes, this is an actual concern and there are Koreans that really believe this statement, as ridiculous as it sounds. First of all, the Korean scientist who published his research on this topic has noted that his findings were taken wildly out of context by the Korean media and that his actual research proves no such thing. It’s like a bad urban legend that found a vulnerable mass audience through the media. Second, after confronting the media about their misuse of information, he had to fear for his life due to threats and attacks on his home from various members of the crazy mob we have grown to love. Finally, there are millions of Korean Americans living in the USA. If Koreans are more genetically susceptible to mad cow disease, why hasn’t there been a single case of vCJD within the Korean American community in the USA?

Prions in infected cattle have the ability to transmit BSE. Even if cooked to high temperatures you cannot kill the prions.

It’s just another myth that Koreans have blown out of proportion. Before we go any further we should establish that prions are a poorly understood hypothetical infectious agent. Prions are thought to cause a number of diseases in a variety of mammals, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as “mad cow disease”) in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans.

It’s a hypothetical without any solid grounding in scientific knowledge. Isn’t it rather presumptuous for Koreans to start spinning these elaborate stories about something they know nothing about? I suppose that really adds to the fear effect of the “mysterious” prions. You could weave any number of crazy stories, tag prions to it, and voila, you have a recipe for disaster!

Whether prions are the agent, which causes disease, or merely a symptom caused by a different agent is still under debate.

Koreans eat more risk materials in their dishes than Americans do. Therefore, they are more likely to catch vCJD.

One scientist said, “Your risk of catching vCJD from eating specified risk materials from American beef over 30 months old is less likely than getting struck by lightning, while getting eaten by a Great White Shark, while holding a winning lottery ticket for a million dollars.” Lightning literally kills more people every year. Maybe we should protest...lightning?

I’m sure these answers probably won’t satisfy the average Korean who is hell bent on proving how dangerous American beef is. The sad fact is that Koreans have no scientific basis on which to place any of their fears. Any fears that they do have are deeply rooted in some new-found superstition about mad cow disease or can be firmly linked to pseudo-science at best.