050631 Indonesia Bans US Beef After Mad Cow CaseJune 30, 2005Jakarta - Indonesia has reimposed a ban on beef imports from the United States after a second case of mad cow was confirmed in the US, an agriculture ministry official said. But Jakarta would allow entry to beef from the United States currently being shipped to Indonesia, said ministry official Tri Satya Naipospos Thursday. "For shippings which are still undergoing paperwork, we will give them time until August 30, 2005," she told AFP, adding that mad cow disease had a long incubation period. Indonesia imposed a ban on beef imports from the United States in December 2003 after that country reported its first case of mad cow disease. The ban was lifted in June last year and 4,000 tonnes of beef from the United States had entered Indonesia since then, Naipospos said. US authorities on Friday confirmed the country's second case of mad cow disease in an animal that died last November and had passed previous tests. Beef affected by mad cow disease is feared to cause in humans a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which has claimed more than 140 lives.
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