Website opens on mad cow disease after Moon’s order

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has established a special website on mad cow disease, following President Moon Jae-in’s order to provide people details about it.

The ministry has added a banner to its official Korean website and started uploading press releases and information on mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), to the special website.

It plans to update questions and answers on BSE with the latest research on the disease.

The government also promised to provide updates on BSE from the U.S. government.

Before opening the website, the ministry was criticized for failing to provide enough information about the disease. People have been concerned about the safety of beef imported from the U.S. since a recent BSE outbreak in Alabama.

In response to demands, the ministry searched previous articles and reread the government’s explanations written in 2008 when candlelit protesters demanded a ban on U.S. beef imports.

The ministry at first only offered brief scientific information about BSE. The latest data the government posted was an explanation uploaded in 2014 to refute a media report.

Given that the government had immediately opened special websites about avian influenza and foot-and-mouth disease, the belated response to BSE prompted some to raise suspicions that the government is reluctant to share the truth about BSE.

Moon’s order to the minister Kim Yung-rok, however, changed the situation.

“Please try your best to address public concerns by offering details of the government measures and the current information about the disease, regardless,” Moon said earlier this week.

An agriculture ministry official said they launched the special website after the president’s order.