"The Shenzhen quarantine agency seized 65 kilograms of frozen beef from Brazil and 940 kilograms of beef from Argentina -- both countries where the food-and-mouth disease (FMD) was found,'' said Huang Wanli, a local quarantine employee.

In its latest drive to ensure food safety for the forthcoming Spring Festival, which falls on February 12, the agency checked cold storages throughout the city.

The agency also found 3.8 tons of frozen goose wings from Israel, where New Castle disease occurred last year.

A 5.09-ton batch of frozen pork tripe from Spain, where outbreaks of classical swine fever were reported last year, was also destroyed.

Quarantine experts said FMD can cause animals to get blisters on their mouths and hoofs and develop a fever, causing a loss in appetite. It can kill animals and entire beef and milk-cow herds.

The other two infections -- classical swine fever and New Castle disease -- are also very dangerous to the animal husbandry industry and people's health.

Liu Hong, an employee with the commercial section of the Brazil Embassy in Beijing, said China has not yet lifted its ban on imports of Brazilian beef. But he said Brazil is working for an early withdrawal of the restriction.

All the seized products came from a domestic frozen meat exchange market, Huang said. But she did not specify where it is.

"The agency will soon launch a larger-scale drive in Shenzhen targeting frozen meat products which have entered the city illegally,'' Huang said.

In Beijing, the State General Administration for Quality Supervision and Inspection and Quarantine issued a notice to suspend imports of pig offal from 20 exporters in countries including the United States, Canada, France and Belgium.

Quarantine authorities have found nearly 1,000 tons of such products in more than 30 batches were contaminated by listeria bacilli and salmonella germs since November.

Listeria bacillus is a bacterium that can destroy the eyesight of those infected and even cause death. Most people infected with salmonella develop diarrhoea, fever, and abdominal cramps between 12 and 72 hours after infection, quarantine experts said.

(China Daily January 31, 2002)