October 15, 2004

 

 

Japan May Relax Mad Cow Testing Standards
 

Japan's agriculture minister on Friday proposed relaxing testing standards for mad cow disease. This move could lead to the end of an eight-month ban on US beef imports.

 

Agriculture minister Yoshinobu Shimamura said the government backed exempting young cows from Japan's policy of testing all cattle headed for market for the fatal brain-wasting disease.

 

"Cows 20 months and younger pose absolutely no problem. That has clearly been shown statistically,'' Shimamura stated. He said the government "would not be amiss'' in revising requirements with the new cutoff age for mandatory testing.

 

Kyodo News agency said the agriculture ministry would submit its proposals to the state-appointed Food Safety Commission later Friday.

 

Tokyo's insistence on blanket testing has been a major sticking point in talks with Washington aimed at ending the ban on American beef, which was imposed last December after the discovery of the first case of mad cow in the United States.

 

Japan, the most lucrative overseas market for US beef before the ban, has said it wants to resolve the dispute, but maintained the measure was necessary for food safety. The United States has refused, saying the process was costly and ineffective.

 

Japan showed signs of relaxing its demand last month when the Food Safety Commission announced that the country could import meat from untested cows 20 months old or younger without endangering public health.

 

Authorities say that infections among young and newborn animals are extremely rare and that testing methods for young animals are not reliable.

 

Cows under 20 months are unlikely to have been exposed to meat-and-bone meal made from ruminant animal parts. The meal was believed to have been a major cause in initial outbreaks and has been banned by most countries.

 

On Thursday, Japan confirmed its 14th case of mad cow - the second case to crop up in less than a month. Both animals were older than 20 months.

 

Tokyo has checked every slaughtered cow before it entered the food supply since 2001. This comes after its first discovery of mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.

 

Japan bought $1.2 billion worth of US beef in 2003, more than any other country, before it halted imports.