US hails calm world reaction to new mad cow case

WASHINGTON, Mar 14 (Reuters) The low-key world reaction to discovery of the third U.S. case of mad cow disease is a sign that trading partners recognize American beef is safe, an Agriculture Department spokesman said today.

The new case was an elderly Santa Gertrudis beef cow from a small herd in Alabama and the first found since November 2004.

The cow was buried on the farm.

''It was not an animal that got in the (human) food supply.

It did not get in the animal feed supply. Our firewalls worked,'' Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns told reporters in Berlin, his third stop on a trip to Europe.

Two major Asian markets said the new U.S. case would not cause any immediate change in plans. South Korea was scheduled to resume U.S. beef purchases in April. Japan and the United States are discussing refinements to U.S. meat inspections.

''I think overall there has been a very measured reaction to the announcement,'' USDA spokesman Ed Loyd wrote in responses to e-mail questions.

Loyd cited ''an increasing understanding worldwide of (the) safety of U.S. beef'' and acceptance of international guidelines that say beef can be traded when nations take steps to prevent the spread of mad cow, formally named bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

''We have very strong, interlocking safeguards,'' said Loyd, who listed a 1997 ban on using cattle parts in cattle feed and a requirement for meatpackers to remove from carcasses the brains, spinal cords and nervous tissue most at risk of carrying mad cow.

Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Saxby Chambliss said U.S. beef ''is absolutely safe and should be imported to every country around the world, including Korea.

''I think we're doing the right things. We're heading in the right direction and hopefully we're going to have all these markets reopened soon,'' said Chambliss, a Georgia Republican.

South Korean officials said they saw no reason to delay opening their borders unless the new U.S. case was born before the feed ban.

In Japan, Agriculture Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said the new case would not affect ongoing talks over trade suspended on Jan. 20 when inspectors found part of a backbone in a shipment of veal. The item was forbidden under rules for U.S.-Japan beef trade. Japan has asked USDA how it will prevent any more violations.

Reuters SK VP0005