(JP) Mad cow infection linked to tainted feed

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http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20020824p2a00m0fp006000c.html

 

24 Aug 2002

Mad cow infection linked to tainted feed

 

YOKOHAMA -- A cow confirmed as being infected with mad

cow disease was apparently fed with the same powder

milk as given to all four other infected cows,

officials have said.

 

Government inspectors are probing the connection

between the powder milk and all five cows infected

with the disease, officially known as bovine

sponjiform encephalopathy (BSE).

 

After central government inspectors confirmed the

fifth cow's BSE infection Thursday, local officials

searched a farmhouse in Isehara, Kanagawa Prefecture,

where the cow was raised and checked through more than

1,100 receipts for animal food.

 

One of them revealed that a farmer there bought 20

kilograms of powder milk produced by an animal food

institute in December 1995, just six days after the

infected cow was born.

 

Officials believe that the cow was fed with that

powder milk. The central government has already

confirmed that all four previously infected cows were

fed with powder milk produced at the institute's

Takasaki factory in Gunma Prefecture.

 

In Japan, farmers normally feed newborn cows with

powder milk dissolved into hot water for some three

months after birth, as their mothers' milk is usually

sold for human consumption.

 

Meanwhile, the officials quoted the Isehara farmer as

saying that the cow had given birth to four calves and

all of them were subsequently sold. But an expert said

BSE is not usually transmitted from a mother cow to

her calves. (Mainichi Shimbun, Aug. 24, 2002)

 

 

 

 

 

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