(JP) Milk substitutes cited in BSE case

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http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2002051400539.html

 

Milk substitutes cited in BSE case

 

The Asahi Shimbun

 

SAPPORO-The farmer who raised the Holstein that tested

positive for mad cow disease over the weekend fed his

livestock the same milk substitutes consumed by three

other cattle infected with the brain-wasting ailment.

 

The farmer, from Onbetsu, Hokkaido, said he used milk

substitutes produced at a plant in Takasaki, Gunma

Prefecture. The same plant, run by Scientific Feed

Laboratory Co., made milk substitutes fed to the three

cows previously confirmed to have bovine spongiform

encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.

 

However, the farmer said he is not sure if the

Holstein, born in 1996, was actually given the

product. The other infected cows were also born in

1996.

 

The farmer's comments came up during a BSE

investigation conducted by the Onbetsu agricultural

cooperative in Hokkaido, which sold the milk

substitutes to the farmer.

 

In September, when the first BSE case was reported,

the Hokkaido government asked all farmers about the

conditions surrounding their livestock. At that time,

the Onbetsu farmer said no meat and bone meal

(MBM)-the suspected cause of mad cow disease-was being

used at his farm.

 

The milk substitutes in question are solid feed

consisting of artificial powdered skim milk, cattle

fat, sugar and other ingredients. Government experts

say these products could be another source of BSE

because infected cows have been found in European

countries that have banned MBM.

 

Specialists suspect the culprit is tallow because fat

for animal feed usually comes from livestock bones and

other parts, and the milk substitutes are manufactured

at the same plant where MBM is produced.

 

Fat does not contain the abnormal prions that cause

BSE, leading specialists to speculate that protein

remains from MBM manufacturing process were mixed into

the fat used to make milk substitutes.

 

According to an investigation by the Ministry of

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Takasaki

plant has been using cattle fat imported from the

Netherlands, a nation that has experienced an outbreak

of BSE.

 

The ministry in March said it cannot rule out the

possibility that the Dutch fat was the source of BSE

in Japan.

 

(05/14)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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