South Korea banned livestock product imports from Japan on Sunday after Japan's farm ministry said tests had confirmed it had Asia's first case of mad cow disease.
Seoul had withheld quarantine on livestock products from the island nation since the discovery of a suspected case of mad cow disease in the Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo on September 10.
The Agriculture Ministry said in a statement...they have changed the steps to an import ban from a temporary suspension after the Japanese government officially confirmed the disease.
It said...some 349 tons of cattle bones and feet from Japan which are in store at the quarantine office will be sent back or disposed of.
South Korea has brought in only two tons of beef and some 260 tons of cattle foot bones from Japan since April. Imports of livestock products from Japan were banned up to April after foot and mouth disease broke out in the country early last year.
The ministry said South Korea has never imported Japanese meat-and-bone meal (MBM) of ruminant animals which is used for feed.