News Update

News Update
Aug. 15, 2006

South Korea to Make Beef Decision by Early September

South Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said yesterday it expects to decide by early September whether to lift its ban on U.S. beef imports, according to The Korea Times.

A team of South Korean inspectors will first tour the United States Aug. 24 through Sept. 3 to examine meat processing facilities cited for “operational procedures that may cause the wrong type of beef to be imported,” the article stated.

“U.S. authorities said they have corrected problems, but there is a need to check this out for ourselves,” a ministry spokesman said in the article.

Bovine Genome Researchers Release Data

Bovine Genome Sequencing Project researchers announced yesterday they have released the most complete and accurate genome sequence to date into the free public database. Comprising almost one-third more data than earlier versions, the release of data also includes an upgraded genetic map and a new set of two million DNA base differences for use as DNA sequence polymorphisms.

According to Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), where bovine genome sequencing was conducted, the new sequence contains 2.9 billion DNA base pairs, similar to human and other mammalian genomes.

The Hereford breed was selected for the bulk of the sequencing project, but DNA sequencing was also conducted on Holstein, Angus, Jersey, Limousin, Norwegian Red and Braham animals to detect genetic differences between breeds. According to BCM, discovery of DNA differences among breeds will lead to trait selection for better meat and milk production.

Sequencing of the bovine genome, which began in December 2003, will now enter the final analysis phase. The following public databases contain sequence data.

• Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center, www.hgsc.bcm.tmc.edu
• GenBank, www.ncbi.nih.gov/Genbank
• EMBL Bank, www.ebi.ac.uk/embl/index.html
• DNA Data Bank of Japan, www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp

Allflex RFID Tags Approved for NAIS

Allflex USA, a livestock identification (ID) company, announced yesterday the approval of ISO radio frequency identification (RFID) tags by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for use in the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

According to Allflex, key groups such as the NAIS Cattle Working Group, IDairy, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and U.S. Animal Identification Organization advocate ISO RFID tags as the technology of choice for the national ID system.

Allflex serves some 40 official ID programs around the world, the company says, and both the Allflex Ultra High Performance Half Duplex and the Allflex Ultra Full Duplex tags have been validated for use in the NAIS.

Allflex will work with its commercial distribution partners to make the tags available as part of the USDA animal identification number (AIN) management system.