April 14, 2004

Japan To Call For Blanket Mad Cow Testing

Japan will call on the Paris-based Organization for Animal Health, or OIE, to carry out rule changes to emphasize the importance of testing all cattle for mad cow disease, agricultural ministry officials said Tuesday, Kyodo news service reported.
 
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will make the request at the OIE's general assembly, to be held starting May 23, on the grounds that blanket testing of cattle for the brain-wasting disease is effective in ensuring the safety of meat, the officials said, Kyodo reported.
 
Japan is also urging the U.S. to test all cattle for the disease, formally called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, before removing an import ban it imposed on American beef after an affected Holstein was found in the U.S. last December.
 
Washington brushed Tokyo's demand aside as being unscientific.
 
Of the 164 members of the OIE tasked with guaranteeing the transparency of animal disease status around the globe, only Japan tests all cattle for mad cow disease, stressing that BSE has been found even in young cattle and that a definition of organs most susceptible to the disease, such as the brain and spinal cord, has yet to be fully established.