Japan's BSE tests slammed

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http://www.asahi.com/english/politics/K2002021100162.html

 

Japan's BSE tests slammed

 

The Asahi Shimbun

 

The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE)

concluded Japan's program to test calves for mad cow

disease has no scientific basis and is therefore

useless, it was learned over the weekend.

 

The Paris-based organization gave its assessment to a

visiting group of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers

on Feb. 1, according to notes of some of the

delegates.

 

Animals required by the central government to be

tested at slaughterhouses for bovine spongiform

encephalopathy (BSE) include calves younger than 30

months.

 

Under that policy, an additional 300,000 head of

cattle have to be tested, bringing the number covered

by mandatory testing to 1.3 million head for an annual

cost of 3.5 billion yen.

 

The OIE told the LDP group, however, that current

testing methods cannot detect BSE infection in young

cattle.

 

In Europe, calves are not tested for BSE because they

are considered not a health risk. Thus, they pose no

hazard for human consumption.

 

It is believed that cattle contract BSE by eating

feeds containing abnormal prions-a type of

protein-between six months to a year after birth.

 

Only after they are 30 months old, however, can cattle

accumulate enough prions in their brains to test

positive for the presence of BSE.

 

European governments, therefore, see no reason to test

calves. In France, for example, calves younger than 24

months are excluded from mandatory testing.

 

OIE Director-General Bernard Vallat told the visiting

LDP lawmakers the organization does not support the

inclusion of young cattle in such testing regimes, and

the goal of merely reassuring consumers is a political

consideration.

 

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare had

originally planned to test only cattle 30 months or

older, but finally accepted an LDP claim that consumer

fears of BSE could only be allayed by the blanket

testing of all cattle.

 

Agriculture minister Tsutomu Takebe had called Japan's

testing program ``the world's most rigorous.''

 

Testing kits cost 2,000 yen per animal, and the

inclusion of calves has also pushed up associated

personnel costs.

 

(02/11)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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