Japan quarantines cattle over mad cow
China Daily
( 2003-10-08 16:38) (Agencies)
Japan has quarantined 604 cows to prevent the spread of mad cow disease after
authorities confirmed that a 23-month-old bull had a new strain of the bovine
illness, an official said Wednesday.
The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry ordered the isolation of all
cattle raised with the infected animal, the country's eighth case, ministry
official Keiji Fushimi said.
Fushimi said the ministry hasn't decided whether to destroy the cattle
from Fukushima and Tochigi states, north of Tokyo and isn't ruling out
the possibility that quarantine numbers could rise. For now, the cows are being
held on the farms where they were bred, he added.
The latest discovery raises questions about tighter screening procedures implemented
since Japan's first case was diagnosed in September 2001.
The bull, which tested positive for the disease on Sept. 29, was the youngest
animal to be found here with the fatal brain-wasting disease, known formally
as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. The other infected cattle, the
most recent case in January, were five years old.
Agriculture Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei said Tuesday that follow-up tests by the
National Institute of Infectious Diseases revealed a possible new strain of
the disease. Within hours, officials in northern Ibaraki prefecture, where the
cow had been screened before it was to be slaughtered, incinerated the animal.
The case showed heightened resistance to certain enzymes, the Health Ministry
said in a statement. Officials were considering giving more vaccinations to
cattle and possibly adjusting them to fight the new strain, it said.
Since 2001, only three cows younger than 30 months have tested positive for
the disease in Europe, underscoring the rarity of the latest discovery.
Japan was the first country to find an infected cow outside of Europe, where
it has devastated cattle farms. Tokyo has since banned the use of meat-and-bone
meal in cattle feed.
Mad cow is thought to cause the fatal human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
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