September 29, 2003

Japan Findings Link BSE To imports
 
A farm ministry panel has concluded that the outbreak of mad cow disease in Japan was probably caused by cattle feed made from imported British cows or feed made in Italy in the 1980s, ministry sources said Sunday.

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry panel believes the disease was imported into the country either from 14 imported British cows in 1982 and 1987 from Britain, or imported Italian cattle feed imported from Italy. In 2001, Japan reported an outbreak of the brain-wasting bovine spongiform encephalopathy in Chiba Prefecture, the first in seven cases up till January this year.

But the panel was unable to determine the specific infection route. It will compile a final report Tuesday and submit it to the ministry.

The 14 cows from Britain are believed to have been eventually processed into meat-and-bone meal in Japan, while the feed imported from Italy had apparently not been heat-processed, according to the sources.

The panel concluded that domestic cows were infected by eating the feed made of the imported cattle or the Italian feed, believed to have been contaminated with abnormal prions -- protein particles lacking nucleic acid that have been linked to nervous system illnesses such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Japanese cows that were given the tainted feed were eventually made into feed themselves, which was likely to have caused the secondary infections that came to light in 2001.

Mad cow disease is believed to be caused by the consumption of meat-and-bone meal contaminated with abnormal prions. The meal feed is often used as feed for pigs and chickens.

Investigations so far have shown that none of the seven infected cows had been fed meat-and-bone meal. However, their feed had been made on the same production lines at five factories in Hokkaido, Gunma and Ibaraki prefectures that are used to make meat-and-bone meal for pigs and chicken.