JEDDAH, 28 July — Authorities have seized 40 containers of frozen meat at Jeddah Islamic Port (JIP) for allegedly containing spinal cord residual, which according to experts, could be a source of “mad cow” disease, press reports said yesterday.
Meanwhile, negotiations in Dammam between Saudi meat importers and the Commerce Ministry on lifting the ban on import of meat containing spinal cord residues have failed, the Okaz Arabic newspaper said. Muhammad Ali Al-Ghaithy, director of the port, was not available for comment, as it was weekend.
Informed sources said the ministry insisted that it would not release the meat shipments containing spinal cord residues due to health concerns. The ban will force traders not to import full carcasses of cows and sheep.
The paper said meat importers and the ministry failed to reach an agreement on re-routing shipments from Australia, New Zealand and Brazil to the Kingdom without touching Salala, Jabal Ali and Khorfakan.
The failure of talks at the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce and Industry has prompted many Saudi businessmen to route their meat imports to Jeddah Islamic Port from King Abdul Aziz Port in Dammam.
The shipping companies, in their turn, have increased freight charges by 35 percent putting importers in jeopardy, Okaz said.
The charges have gone up from $2,600 per container to $3,600, the sources said, adding that the shift to Jeddah port would negatively affect business at the Dammam port.
In a related development, the environmental health section of the Madinah Municipality has refused to give clearance for slaughter of sheep suspected to have injected with fattening hormones, an informed source told Arab News.
The source said the municipality had directed the health section to submit a report on the number of sheep suspected of receiving hormone injections.
The municipality has found the suspected sheep much bigger than their usual size, creating suspicion that they might have been injected with hormones for weight increase.
The source said the municipal authorities did not clear the animals fearing that their meat would not be good for human consumption. The sheep weighed as high as 40 kilograms.
Sources at the municipality said the new variety was a crossbreed of New Zealand and Australian sheep. These sheep are known as Mahjen (hybrid) in the market and are imported by a Jeddah trader. There are about 50,000 such sheep in a Madinah farm.
The Dammam Municipality, meanwhile, has seized 720 carcasses of sheep, goats and cows suspected of jaundice infection. Khaleefa Al-Saad, a veterinarian in charge of the municipality’s slaughterhouse, told Arab News that authorities had cleared the slaughterhouse from infected carcasses.
“Meat of animals affected by the disease is not harmful to humans, but not advisable to eat because it will have a foul taste,” he said.
Khaled Al-Oqail, director of environmental health at the municipality, emphasized that all animals must undergo veterinary tests before they were slaughtered. The municipality provides this service at public and private slaughterhouses under its supervision.
He said those who slaughter animals privately without tests away from the municipality’s supervision would be punished. More than 3,300 animals are slaughtered at the municipality’s two butcheries daily.
