March 5, 2004

Japan Discovers New Suspected Mad Cow Case

Japan has discovered on Thursday, the eleventh suspected mad cow case in the country, the second case in two weeks.
 
The 16-year, 6-month old beef cow was screened Thursday after being brought to a slaughterhouse in northern Japan, Miyagi prefectural official Zenjiro Oyamada said.
 
Initial testing showed positive signs of the disease, he said. More detailed testing is to be conducted by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases Friday, Oyamada said.
 
The cow had difficulty standing up from about a week ago - one possible symptom of mad cow disease - but caretakers believed that could be because of the cow's age, he said.
 
Two weeks ago, authorities had announced a similar case - the first in more than three months. Shortly afterwards it was confirmed as the nation's 10th case of BSE.
 
Japan was the first country in September 2001 to find an infected cow outside of Europe.
 
Under a comprehensive screening system put in place after the outbreak three
years ago, Japan tests every animal that is killed before it enters the food supply. Tokyo has also banned the use of meat-and-bone meal - made from ruminant animal parts - in cattle feed, which authorities believe led to the outbreak.
 
The sick animal, born before the meat-and-bone meal ban went into effect, was the fourth to turn up in Miyagi prefecture, about 190 miles northeast of Tokyo. Authorities were investigating possible infection routes.
 
Japan has credited its mad cow surveillance as a necessary, if expensive, precaution. Tokyo has banned U.S. beef imports since the first U.S. mad cow case was discovered in Washington state on Dec. 24, and has demanded that the U.S. adopt a blanket testing system before Tokyo would reopen its market - the most lucrative for U.S. beef before the ban.
 
Eating beef from a diseased cow is thought to cause the fatal human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.