(JP)Two animal feed plants linked to mad cow undergo probe

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Two animal feed plants linked to mad cow undergo probe

 

SAPPORO (Kyodo) Government inspectors have started

investigating two factories that produced the type of

animal feed believed to have been consumed by two cows

that contracted mad cow disease, officials said

Monday.

Agents from the Fertilizer and Feed Inspection Station

in Saitama Prefecture carried out on-site inspections

Sunday at the factories -- one in Kushiro, Hokkaido,

and the other in Gunma Prefecture -- on the orders of

the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

 

The factory in Kushiro was still being examined

Monday, the officials said.

 

At least three brands of the same type of animal feed,

which may have contained meat-and-bone meal, produced

by at least two companies, are believed to have been

used at two farms where the infected cows were raised,

they said.

 

The first infected cow was born on a farm in the town

of Saroma, northeastern Hokkaido, in late March 1996,

while the second was born in early April the same year

in the village of Sarufutsu, some 180 km northwest of

Saroma.

 

Given the similarities in birthplaces and dates, the

ministry hopes that the route of infection may be

traceable by checking feed and nutritional supplements

given to the animals, the officials said.

 

Mad cow disease is said to be caused by feeding cattle

infected MBM, a protein feed made from the crushed

internal organs, skin and bones of cows and other

animals.

 

Officials of the company that runs the factory in

Kushiro said they produce feed for young cows older

than one week or so.

 

The company produces MBM feed for chickens and pigs as

well as non-MBM feed for cows. The officials denied

that MBM and non-MBM feed could become mixed, saying

the production line is cleaned after the MBM feed is

processed.

 

The company that runs the factory in Gunma Prefecture

produces a milk substitute for calves soon after their

birth.

 

The milk substitute contains plasma protein of pigs,

and fat and oil of cows shipped from the U.S., it

said.

 

Meanwhile, the Hokkaido Prefectural Government said

Monday that the farm in Sarufutsu has shipped 219 head

of cattle since April 1995, 34 of which were sold

outside Hokkaido.

 

Separately, Miyagi Gov. Shiro Asano said the

prefecture has confirmed that five cows raised in the

village of Sarufutsu were brought to farms in the

prefecture in 1997. Four of the cows are no longer

living, and the prefecture will try to trace how their

carcasses were processed, he said, adding that the

remaining one appears normal.

 

The Japan Times: Nov. 27, 2001

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