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Japanese chicken ban: Does it
matter?
By Richard Hanson
TOKYO - "Japanese chicken banned in Hong Kong."
That's about the last headline a Japanese chicken eater
might have expected to read after the shock last weekend
of an outbreak of the deadly avian disease known as H5N1
killed poultry in Yamaguchi prefecture, located on the
southern tip of the country's main island of Honshu.
But that is what happens when people lose
confidence in what they eat.
It may surprise
many that Japan in fact does export chicken (some 2,900
tons to Hong Kong in the first 10 months of 2003,
according to reports).
The Japanese authorities
moved quickly to contain the disease, which has been
linked to the death of several people in Vietnam and has
also been identified in poultry in Cambodia and South
Korea. The deadly human flu, called influenza A, is the
same strain that killed six people in Hong Kong in 1997,
according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Prior
to that, the disease was thought to be transmitted only
among birds.
Japan's sudden outbreak is
considered to be the same strain as the one that
devastated the South Korean chicken business last month,
shutting down the popular shops that serve steaming
chicken pot dishes to ward off chills in Korea's
bitter-cold winter evenings. In December, the Korean
authorities reported slaughtering 1.1 million ducks and
chickens.
Japan's Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries ordered the culling of all
chickens at about 30 farms in Yamaguchi. The Health
Ministry ordered that the eggs shipped from Win Win Farm
be recalled. By Sunday, the National Institute of Animal
Health, an independent administrative agency in Tsukuba,
Ibaraki prefecture, confirmed the nature of the disease.
The Yamaguchi prefectural government tested six
farm workers and five family members to see whether they
were infected. So far, only chickens have been infected.
All in all, the disease seems to have been contained and
the economic damage relatively small. Japan's tabloid
newspapers have made much of speculation that the
disease might have been carried to Japan by migratory
birds (Yamaguchi prefecture faces the Korean Peninsula).
That will require genetic testing of birds from the
other infected areas.
A scientist at the
National Institute of Animal Health, in a statement to
media, did his best to ease fears of the disease
spreading as long as thorough steps are taken to contain
the outbreak. "By taking immediate measures, such as the
slaughter of all remaining chickens at the farm, it's
possible to prevent the H5N1 virus from spreading
further."
That is not particularly comforting
given the haste with which government has behaved in the
past during outbreaks of diseases. Nor is a statement by
a WHO official who is coordinating the crisis in the
region. The official, in Manila, is quoted by the
Associated Press as saying the virus is "a bigger
potential than SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome]
because we don't have any defenses against the disease.
"If it latches on to a human influenza virus, it could
cause serious international damage."
Then there
is the old saw that health officials offer that there is
little mortal danger as long as the meat or eggs are
properly cooked, even if it from an affected animal.
This advice was imparted to one consumer in Tokyo after
a satisfying lunch of well-cooked sukiyaki-style beef,
which was (with no pre-thought) dipped delicately in a
stirred raw chicken egg before consumption.
The
outbreak in Yamaguchi prefecture has served as just one
more reminder to food consumers and agricultural
regulators that the proverbial food chain is just as
frail as its weakest link. More to the point, there are
no national boundaries for animal diseases. The
Christmas Eve disclosure of the United States' first
reported case of mad-cow disease, or BSE (bovine
spongiform encephalopathy), dramatized that, as Asian
import markets were shut down tight against US beef.
Japan, the largest consumer of US beef exports,
moved swiftly to do so. But even as US beef sat in
quarantine limbo in Japanese bonded warehouses, most
Japanese shops continued sell off their stocks to
consumers. (Ironically, the US still bans the import of
Japanese beef, a measure taken after Japanese announced
its first - of nine in total so far - mad-cow cases.)
This meant that one of Japan's most popular
beef-and-rice bowl restaurant chains, Yoshinoya D&C
Co, received enormous amounts of television coverage as
it fretted that it would run out of its 100 percent US
beef stocks. Then came the double whammy: a brand-new
dish of a grilled chicken-and-rice bowl debuted just as
the chicken disease struck.
The last time this
bird flu struck Japan was 1925. This raises the question
of where it might have been hiding for all of that time,
and whether there will be a new type lurking around.
That is the sort of theory held by a number of
scientists who are studying the mystery of the mad-cow
disease, which has yet to reveal its secrets.
In
the commercial world, the providers of food are doing
their best. A famous fried-chicken chain expresses
confidence in its sources of healthy chicken - none from
Yamaguchi. A very large hamburger chain (it should be
called a beefburger) has declared next Sunday to be
"Hamburger Day" and is distributing 10 million coupons
that offer a buy-one-get-one-free deal.
The
average consumer in Hong Kong will probably not miss, or
even notice, the absence of any Made-in-Japan chicken.
The message to consumers, and regulators, is
that banning something doesn't make it go away.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
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