(JP)Feed maker acknowledges MBM contamination possible

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http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2001112700624.html

 

Feed maker acknowledges MBM contamination possible

 

The Asahi Shimbun

 

The nation's two reported cases of mad cow disease

could have resulted from possible contamination of

cattle feed from a mill in Hokkaido, feed producers

acknowledge. Processing facilities the plant uses to

produce cattle feed are also used to make animal feeds

containing meat and bone meal (MBM), they said.

 

The plant in June began to clear its four conveyor

lines by running corn and soybean residue along the

belts before using them to make cattle feed.

 

Before the procedure was changed, however, the belts

were simply run empty for several minutes before

starting a batch of cattle feed.

 

At that time, MBM, made of ground bone and scrap, was

a typical additive in hog and chicken feed.

 

The nation's two cases of bovine spongiform

encephalopathy (BSE), in September and earlier this

month, were fed cattle feed from the plant, run by

Hokuren, an agricultural cooperative that covers

Hokkaido.

 

The sources say that since there were at that time no

special precautions about mixing MBM into cattle feed,

abnormal prions-the elements that can cause mad cow

disease-could have contaminated the line, and might

have tainted the feed later given to the two cows.

 

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

issued instructions in June to separate feed

production lines for cattle feed and feed for hogs,

chickens and other livestock.

 

If the lines could not be separated, the ministry said

equipment should be cleared with crop residue, such as

soybeans, which would absorb leftover abnormal prions.

 

 

Hokuren sources were not certain there was never any

MBM contamination of cattle feed, since at the time,

such contamination was not a major concern, and the

meal they used came from Zenno, the national

federation of agricultural cooperative associations.

They said they felt the MBM they received was safe,

because it was made from Hokkaido-bred cattle.

 

Agricultural officials said Monday that 219 head of

cattle have been shipped from a farm in Sarufutsu,

northern Hokkaido, where the second BSE case was

reported, since April 1995, a year before the infected

cow was born. Of the total, 185 were shipped to other

Hokkaido farms, and 34 were sent elsewhere.

 

(11/27)

 

 

 

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