Asia Times: Mad cow mania comes to Japan


	September 12, 2001	atimes.com

Japan

Mad cow mania comes to Japan

TOKYO - The Ministry of Agriculture will launch a full-scale investigation to identify the sales route and destinations of stock feed eaten by an animal at the center of Japan's first case of mad cow disease.

The ministry is hoping to prevent consumers eating meat from other cows that may be infected with the fatal brain disease. The investigation is expected to be lengthy as identifying the feed involved and how it has spread will prove difficult because farmers regularly move cows from pasture to pasture. The long gestation period of two years or more for the disease will also frustrate hopes of a quick inquiry, ministry officials said.

The suspect cow has already been destroyed, and cows that had been raised with it have been isolated to prevent tainted meat from circulating in the market. The cow was unable to stand up by itself - a symptom peculiar to the illness. An independent administrative agency of the ministry has found that the cow tested positive to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, the proper name of the disease.

"If the cow had the disease, it is highly likely that it was infected through powdered beef and bones imported as feed," a ministry official said.

BSE is a contagious disease that attacks the brain, causing cows and sheep to act abnormally. It affects humans as well, causing a type of dementia that may lead to death. According to the ministry, the disease can be contracted through cow brains, eyes and spinal cords, but not through meat, milk, tongues or livers.

Mad cow disease was a major problem from the latter half of the 1980s into the first half of the 1990s in the UK. Although the spread of the disease subsided in the latter half of the 1990s, the number of infected cows surged in Europe in 2000. Japan had suspended all imports of beef, processed beef and powdered meat and bones from European Union countries since January.

Two emergency panels at the Agriculture Ministry were to meet Tuesday afternoon. One panel was to identify the procedures needed to determine whether the cow discovered on a dairy farm in Chiba Prefecture actually had BSE. The other committee would discuss measures to prevent the disease from spreading.

Agriculture Minister Tsutomu Takebe told reporters Tuesday, "Results of experiments conducted in the UK show that beef and milk are generally safe for consumers. The Office International Des Epizooties (an international animal health body) also said there is no problem with exports of these products."

As part of efforts to confirm the presence of BSE, a portion of the suspected beast's brain is likely to be sent to the British Veterinary Association. About one month is needed to obtain a result.

(Asia Pulse/Nikkei)