June 10, 2010

Japan sees high-risk FMD outbreak

Japan faces a "high risk" that an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) may spread from southwestern Miyazaki prefecture to other livestock regions, new Agriculture Minister Masahiko Yamada said on Wednesday (June 9)

"Japan is in a critical situation where the disease may break out anywhere, anytime," as infected animals are still alive, Yamada said, noting that the country has to speed up culling and burying.

FMD is one of the most contagious livestock diseases and can have high mortality rates in young animals, according to the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). Miyazaki is Japan's second-largest pig-farming region and third-largest producer of beef cattle.

The country has so far discovered 185,999 cases of the disease, of which 152,871 were in pigs and 33,111 were in cows and cattle, according to the agriculture ministry. They represent 1.5% of Japan's total swine herd and 0.7% of total cows and cattle.

The government has buried about 154,000 culled animals, Tomohiro Nishio at the ministry's animal health division said. Japan plans to slaughter an additional 122,000 animals, including uninfected ones, to prevent the disease from spreading further, Nishio said.