Japan Discovers 19th Case of Mad Cow Disease
Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2005 8:35 pm
TOKYO (AP) - A cow in northern Japan is suspected of being the country's 19th case of mad cow disease, an official said Wednesday.
Preliminary tests on the animal at a slaughterhouse in Hokkaido prefecture were positive, and authorities sent samples to two laboratories in the prefecture for more precise tests, a Hokkaido prefectural official said on condition of anonymity. He declined to elaborate. Kyodo News agency said final test results could be announced by Saturday.
Japan has found 18 animals infected with the fatal illness - known formally as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE - since the first case was detected in 2001. Since then, Tokyo has checked every slaughtered cow before it enters the food supply since 2001, after its first discovery of mad cow disease.
In February, Japan confirmed its first human case of mad cow disease following the death of a man with symptoms of the illness. Japanese health authorities have said it was likely the man contracted the disease while living for a month in Britain - where mad cow first surfaced - in 1989.
Japan banned U.S. beef imports after the first case of mad cow was confirmed in Washington state last December.
Amid pressure from Washington, a Japanese government panel earlier this month took a step toward partially lifting a ban on U.S. beef imports, but the decision still has to be approved by the government.
Eating beef from an infected cattle is thought to cause the fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
http://www.canada.com/health/story.html?id=593347d1
Preliminary tests on the animal at a slaughterhouse in Hokkaido prefecture were positive, and authorities sent samples to two laboratories in the prefecture for more precise tests, a Hokkaido prefectural official said on condition of anonymity. He declined to elaborate. Kyodo News agency said final test results could be announced by Saturday.
Japan has found 18 animals infected with the fatal illness - known formally as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE - since the first case was detected in 2001. Since then, Tokyo has checked every slaughtered cow before it enters the food supply since 2001, after its first discovery of mad cow disease.
In February, Japan confirmed its first human case of mad cow disease following the death of a man with symptoms of the illness. Japanese health authorities have said it was likely the man contracted the disease while living for a month in Britain - where mad cow first surfaced - in 1989.
Japan banned U.S. beef imports after the first case of mad cow was confirmed in Washington state last December.
Amid pressure from Washington, a Japanese government panel earlier this month took a step toward partially lifting a ban on U.S. beef imports, but the decision still has to be approved by the government.
Eating beef from an infected cattle is thought to cause the fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
http://www.canada.com/health/story.html?id=593347d1