DOHA OF late, how many times have you thought of buying canned meat and then dropped the can and the idea, given the horsemeat- in-beef scare raging through Europe? You can safely gorge on your favourite canned meat, authorities in Qatar have assured.
According to the Arabic newspaper Al Watan, the head of the animal wealth division in the livestock management department of the Ministry of Environment, Farhoud al Hajri, has announced that Qatar is absolutely free from horsemeat.
Hajri noted that the livestock management department is monitoring the meat entering the country. Also, the Joint Committee of Food Monitoring at the Supreme Council of Health rigorously controls (slaughtered) frozen meat. The ministry is represented by Livestock Director Dr Qasim al Qahtani at joint committee of food monitoring.
He also said that the livestock management department is in constant touch with the World Organisation for Animal Health, to stay abreast of any new information on any disease of epidemic proportions in other countries and take steps to protect the country.
Further, live, imported animals are monitored by veterinary quarantine, which is the first line of action to safeguard public health in Qatar.
Veterinary quarantine specialist Dr Mamdouh al Moghrabi explained the conditions of livestock import into Qatar.
He said that the importer needs to apply to the livestock management department for importing animals into the country, detailing the country of export and the number of animals to be delivered.
According to the Ministry of Environment, ever since the outbreak of the mad cow disease in some European countries and the United States, Qatar has imposed a ban on the import of meat from these countries.
A unified GCC team had visited many European countries to evaluate the situation and the intensity of the outbreak of the mad cow disease. The countries where the disease had been brought under control, were taken off the ban list.
The ministry has advised all Qataris visiting Europe to be careful when eating meat.
Both speakers stressed that the Ministry of Environment stipulates that livestock fed on animal protein not be imported, because this kind of feeding is one of the main causes of mad cow disease.
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