(JP)Mad cow disease suspected to have hit Chiba dairy farm

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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20010911a1.htm

 

Mad cow disease suspected to have hit Chiba dairy farm

 

Holstein thought to be the nation's first-ever case

 

CHIBA -- A dairy cow in Chiba Prefecture is suspected

to have contracted mad cow disease, government

officials said Monday.

 

According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry,

it is the nation's first suspected case of the

disease, formally called bovine spongiform

encephalopathy.

 

Ministry officials added that it is most likely that

the cow was infected via animal-based feed.

 

Prefectural officials said the cow was a 5-year-old

female Holstein owned by a dairy farm in the town of

Shiroi.

 

Suspicions arose following tests at the farm

ministry's National Institute of Animal Health in

Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture.

 

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry told

a separate news conference that the cow's corpse has

been destroyed and that its meat has not been shipped

for consumption.

 

While milk from the cow has already been shipped, both

ministry and Chiba prefectural officials said that the

milk poses no danger to human health. They added that

milk from the roughly 50 other cows kept at the same

dairy will continue to be put on the market.

 

" Regrettably, such a cow has been found, " said Takemi

Nagamura, head of the farm ministry's Livestock

Industry Department. " We will conduct a thorough

investigation to determine the cause. "

 

Both the farm ministry and the prefecture said Monday

they will set up task forces to look into the matter.

 

The cow in question first showed signs of the malady,

such as being unable to stand, on Aug. 6, officials

said.

 

An initial test on a sample of its brain brought to

the institute turned up negative. However, a

subsequent test by the prefectural government revealed

holes in the brain tissue.

 

That prompted the institute on Monday to conduct

another test, the result of which was positive.

 

For a final confirmation on whether the cow indeed had

the disease, the ministry will assemble a panel of

experts today to decide whether a tissue sample should

be sent to an international institute for additional

tests.

 

The health ministry said it has ordered the farm in

question to stop shipping meat, and added that it

would check distribution channels such as supermarkets

to see the extent to which meat from cows bred at the

farm and those fed the same feed has been shipped.

 

The ministry also said that it would order the

suspension of the sale of meat from cows at the Shiroi

farm until the results of the surveys become

available, " so as to ease concerns of consumers. "

 

Since May, the health ministry has been conducting

tests on cows at least 2 years old that show signs of

neurological disorders, such as the inability to

stand. Until Monday, all animals had tested negative.

 

Given Monday's discovery, health ministry officials

said they will expand the tests to cover animals that

do not yet show any symptoms of the disease.

 

Until 1996, when it was discovered that mad cow

disease was transmittable to humans, Japan had been

importing as much as 100 tons of animal-based feed

from Britain per year.

 

Mad cow disease was first confirmed in Britain in

1986. After an incubation period ranging from two to

eight years, an infected animal shows signs of

neurological disorders and dies after a period ranging

from two weeks to six months.

 

The disease is thought to cause variant

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the fatal human equivalent

of BSE.

 

The European Union said in a report earlier this year

that mad cow disease could break out in Japan, but

farm ministry officials countered that by saying

safety standards in Japan are high.

 

Agriculture ministry officials said they have ordered

the farm where the suspected cow was kept to

quarantine its other cows.

 

Inspections to determine how the cow may have

contracted the disease, including checks into how the

animal was purchased and what type of animal-based

feed it had been consuming, are now scheduled.

 

The Japan Times: Sept. 11, 2001

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