Japan Confirms 30th Mad Cow Case
Pastor Dale Morgan
Japan Confirms 30th Mad Cow Case*
The Associated Press
Monday, November 13, 2006; 12:25 PM
TOKYO -- Japan's Agriculture Ministry said Monday it confirmed the
country's 30th case of mad cow disease.
Tests on the 5-year-old dairy cow performed at the National Institute of
Animal Health confirmed that the cow, which died at a ranch on Japan's
northernmost island of Hokkaido, was infected with the fatal illness.
The animal will be destroyed and incinerated so its parts will not be
circulated for consumption or used as feed, the ministry said.
Japan has now confirmed 30 animals infected with the fatal illness _
known formally as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE _ since the
first case in Japan was detected in 2001.
The degenerative nerve disease found in older cattle has been linked to
the rare but fatal human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Japan initially banned U.S. beef in December 2003 after the first
reported case of mad cow disease in a U.S. herd. Tokyo eased the ban in
July after U.S. and Japanese officials hammered out a deal that included
strict restrictions and stringent checks at U.S. meat processing plants.