Nippon Meat Packers affiliates gave unauthorized vaccines to pigs

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http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20031225wo21.htm

 

Nippon Meat Packers affiliates gave unauthorized

vaccines to pigs

 

Yomiuri Shimbun

 

Nippon Meat Packers Inc. said Wednesday that two of

its subsidiaries either produced or used unauthorized

vaccines to prevent disease in pigs over the past

eight years.

 

An official of the leading Osaka-based meat processor

said at a press conference Wednesday that officials

involved in the use of the vaccine have been

disciplined, including the demotion of the managing

director in charge of overseeing the subsidiaries.

 

The official said there were no problems concerning

the safety of the company's pork products.

 

Taking the case seriously, the Agriculture, Forestry

and Fisheries Ministry has started searching for

evidence at the subsidiaries. The ministry is

considering the possibility of bringing criminal

charges against the firms for violating such laws as

the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law.

 

Found to have produced unlicensed vaccines for pigs

was Hokkaido-based Donan Yakuhin Co., which presently

trades under the name Nippon Biolab. Aomori

Prefecture-based Nippon Swine Farm Co. used the

illegal vaccines. Both companies are wholly owned

subsidiaries of Nippon Meat Packers.

 

According to Nippon Meat Packers, Donan Yakuhin bought

from traders three unauthorized vaccines sold by U.S.

pharmaceutical companies between 1998 to 2002 to

prevent pigs from developing the porcine reproductive

and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), a disease prevailing

back then.

 

Donan Yakuhin then sold the vaccines to Nippon Swine

Farm, with the vaccines having been used at about 20

pig breeders. The number of pigs administered with the

vaccines during the five years is estimated at about

60,000, a company official said.

 

Officials who were temporarily assigned from Nippon

Meat Packers to Donan Yakuhin were involved in the

sale of the vaccines, the official said.

 

In the meantime, Donan Yakuhin also manufactured

without obtaining a license from the central

government a vaccine designed to prevent pig

pleuropneumonia, a disease with a high mortality rate,

between 1995 and 2003, and sold it to Nippon Swine

Farm. The vaccine produced by Donan Yakuhin reportedly

was administered to about 570,000 pigs.

 

Most of the pigs administered with the vaccines

already have been sold on the market as meat.

 

The illegal vaccine in question is legally available

in such countries as the United States and Canada, and

is widely used, Nippon Meat Packers said. It added

that people cannot be infected with the diseases even

if they eat pork exposed to the vaccine.

 

With regard to an estimated 100 tons of pork remaining

in stock, Nippon Meat Packers said it would not recall

them, but would release them on the market.

 

 

 

 

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