Japan reports new suspected mad cow case

Japanese health authorities have reported a further suspected case of mad cow disease, which, if confirmed, would be the country’s 10th case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Preliminary tests showed the dairy cow had tested positive and a second test showed it was highly likely to have been infected with the brain wasting disease, an official at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare said. “We will convene a meeting of experts on Sunday evening to determine if it is a new case of BSE,” the official told AFP. The carcass of the cow had not reached the market, the official said. Japan, the only country in Asia to have confirmed BSE, uncovered its first case in September 2001 and shortly afterwards introduced measures to screen every cow slaughtered for consumption. The most recent suspected case was in a cow born in early 1996, like six of the nine previous cows that tested positive in Japan, the official said. It was raised in a dairy farm in Kanagawa prefecture, south of Tokyo. If confirmed, it would be the first case since a 21-month-old Holstein was found infected in the Hiroshima prefecture in early November. (Source: ABC Health News, AFP, Feb 2004)

Japanese health authorities have reported a further suspected case of mad cow disease, which, if confirmed, would be the country’s 10th case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Preliminary tests showed the dairy cow had tested positive and a second test showed it was highly likely to have been infected with the brain wasting disease, an official at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare said. “We will convene a meeting of experts on Sunday evening to determine if it is a new case of BSE,” the official told AFP. The carcass of the cow had not reached the market, the official said. Japan, the only country in Asia to have confirmed BSE, uncovered its first case in September 2001 and shortly afterwards introduced measures to screen every cow slaughtered for consumption. The most recent suspected case was in a cow born in early 1996, like six of the nine previous cows that tested positive in Japan, the official said. It was raised in a dairy farm in Kanagawa prefecture, south of Tokyo. If confirmed, it would be the first case since a 21-month-old Holstein was found infected in the Hiroshima prefecture in early November.(Source: ABC Health News, AFP, Feb 2004)