February 24, 2005

Japan reports possible new case of mad cow disease

A cow in northern Japan tested positive for mad cow disease in a preliminary examination Thursday, an official said. If confirmed, it would be the country's 15th case of the fatal brain-wasting disease.

Preliminary tests on the Holstein cow - already dead when it was brought in from a ranch in Hokkaido prefecture (state) - turned up positive at a dairy health center in Obihiro, said Hokkadio government official Osamu Terada.

Oher details, including the cow's age, could not be disclosed.

Results from more precise testing at a state-run research center north of Tokyo were likely to be released in a few days, Terada said.

On Feb 4, Japan confirmed its first human case of mad cow disease following the death of a man with symptoms of the illness. Japanese health authorities have said it was likely the man contracted the disease while living for a month in Britain - where mad cow first surfaced - in 1989.

Earlier this month, a Japanese government panel took a step toward partially lifting a ban on US beef imports, but the decision still has to be approved by the government.

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

Japan imposed a ban on US beef after the first case of mad cow was confirmed in Washington state last December.

Eating beef from a diseased cow is thought to cause the fatal human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.