FMD spreads to Japan's largest pork, beef city

Foot-and-mouth disease has spread to Miyakonojo city, Japan's biggest producer of pork and beef, in the southern prefecture of Miyazaki, threatening the nation's livestock industry and feed grain demand.

 

The government confirmed the outbreak in a beef cattle farm in the city, about 50 kilometres from the eastern area of Miyazaki, where the most cases were discovered. All 208 animals in the farm were culled, raising the number to about 158,600, said Atsushi Tachi at the animal health division of the agriculture ministry.

 

"We are in a very serious, critical phase," said Prime Minister Naoto Kan today (May 10). "It is important to act quickly to prevent the disease from spreading further."

 

Foot-and-mouth 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.

 

Miyakonojo city produced pork worth JPY22.5 billion (US$247 million) and beef cattle valued at JPY15.1 billion (US$165 million) in 2006, according to the latest data from the agriculture ministry. The city had 376,100 pigs and 67,000 beef cattle in 2007, the latest ministry data show.

 

"It is regrettable that the disease has expanded from the eastern part of Miyazaki, regardless of our measures to contain it," Tachi said. "We are now checking how the disease was transmitted."

 

The government plans to cull an additional 113,600 animals, including uninfected ones, to prevent the disease from expanding further, he added.

 

Miyakonojo is also adjacent to Kagoshima prefecture, raising the risk the disease may spread to Japan's largest farming region for pigs and the second-biggest for cattle.

 

Kagoshima had 1.34 million pigs and 376,200 beef cattle as of Feb 1, 2009, representing 14% of Japan's total swine herd and 13% of beef cattle.

 

The country has so far discovered about 186,200 cases of the disease, of which 152,871 were in pigs and the rest were mostly in cattle and cows, according to the ministry.