JEDDAH, 12 February 2004 — Following the spate of bird-flu and BSE scares, consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about using imported meat.

Such fears gained further credibility following reports this week that Customs Department at the Jeddah Islamic Port is searching for a businessman who imported a shipment of beef that failed to meet Saudi Arabian health standards. The authorities want the beef either to be destroyed or returned to the port or to its source.

The consignment was allowed to leave the customs area after the businessman undertook in writing not to offer it for sale on the local market until laboratory tests cleared it fit for human consumption. He agreed to keep it in his cold storage until arrangements were made.

The health laboratory later confirmed that the meat contravened local health standards, but it had already been released.

The port authorities have decided to apply sanctions on the businessmen for his failure to respond to repeated inquiries. The fear is that the 50,000 kg of meat has been released onto the local market through the chain of commercial outlets, which include hamburger, traditional shawarma retailers and hotel restaurants, owned by the importer.

However in Dammam, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry recently prevented cargo (owned by Saudi tradesmen) carrying meat and Asian poultry from entering King Abdul Aziz Port.

Eyewitnesses said a number of cargoes have not been allowed entry by quality control labs at the port after the ministry’s decision in February to prohibit the import of meat and poultry products from the following countries: South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, China, Japan, Pakistan and Indonesia.

Sources also revealed that large quantities of meat and poultry had arrived after Saudi Arabia’s decision, most imported from China. The importers began the process of re-exporting to neighboring countries.

Health concerns about the possibility of BSE entering the Kingdom have led to a ban on the import of live cattle from the US state of Washington where the outbreak was first recorded. Some media reports imply strongly that US beef is under a blanket import ban.

“This is not true,” said Quintin Gray, the agricultural spokesman at the US Embassy in Riyadh. “The ban covers only live animals, both beef and dairy cattle, only from Washington state,” he told Arab News.

Though a serious concern which the US authorities have been trying to address, the actual beef and dairy cattle production from Washington state is a small percentage of the total.

The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the ban in a fax to the US Embassy dated Jan. 26, saying “that a resolution has been adopted on temporary banning of the importation of cow family and cow family spermatic fluid from the State of Washington due to the existence of mad cow disease there.”

The rumor that poultry imports from the US are also banned is again untrue. “The ban applies to live birds only, including day-old chicks,” said Gray. “There is an export market of a few millions of dollars in chicks, which were banned because of fears that they might carry West Nile Fever.”

The ban was imposed on Nov. 5 last year. The disease, spread primarily by wild birds, has spread to 45 states in the US where 6,657 cases have been recorded, according to the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and 129 human deaths.

West Nile Virus (WNV) is transmitted to humans through mosquito bites. Mosquitoes become infected when they feed on infected birds with high levels of WNV in their blood. Infected mosquitoes can then transmit WNV when they feed on humans or other animals. Day-old chicks reared commercially rarely contract the disease as they have little or no contact with wild birds or mosquitoes.

According to the International Society for Infectious Diseases, since WNV was first isolated in 1937, it has been known to cause asymptomatic infection and fevers in humans in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Human and animal infections were not documented in the Western Hemisphere until 1999. In 1999 and 2000, outbreaks of WNV encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) were reported in people living in the New York City metropolitan area, New Jersey, and Connecticut. WNV is not transmitted from person to person and there is no evidence that handling live or dead infected birds can infect a person.