20 Month Old........Negative!

[Mike]

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese authorities have concluded that a 20-month-old steer suspected of having mad cow disease did not have the fatal brain-wasting illness, a local government official said on Tuesday. The final test result was being awaited as the animal would have been the youngest to have been affected with mad cow disease, a fact which may have led to a review of Japan's import rules for beef from the United States.

"We received a report from the central government which says the animal did not have the disease," the official said.

The steer in question was found in Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan.

Last December when Japan eased a ban on beef imports from the United States and Canada, imposed after the two countries reported cases of mad cow disease, it stipulated that the meat could only come from cattle aged up to 20 months.

The ceiling was set because mad cow disease, formally called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), had never been found in Japan in an animal younger than 21 months.

Japan currently remains open to Canadian beef, but not American beef, which was again banned after spinal material was found in a veal shipment from New York in January.

It is currently in talks with the United States, previously one of its top beef suppliers, to set the terms for the resumption of beef trade, which was worth an annual $1.4 billion in 2003.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

 

[Mike]

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Today 4/18/2006 6:57:00 AM

Japan May Have BSE Case In Young Animal



A 20-month-old Holstein steer slaughtered for beef northeast of Tokyo may have suffered from bovine spongiform encephalopathy, according to an Agricultural Ministry official quoted by the Associated Press. If it is confirmed, the case could upset all of Japan's and the United States' assumptions about the science of BSE.

Toshitaka Higashira of the Agriculture Ministry said that the animal had tested positive for the disease, and confirmatory tests are being conducted.

Vice Agriculture Minister Mamoru Isihara told reporters that if the case is confirmed, it would affect import restrictions on beef from the United States and Canada. Presumably, he meant that present agreements allowing beef from cattle under 21 months of age would have to be renegotiated to force the age down.

The United States has held that BSE is almost never found in cattle younger than 30 months of age, while Japan has held out for 21 months as the cutoff. If this case is confirmed, however, it may throw all assumptions out the window.

Only one animal this young has ever been found to suffer from the disease, and that was in the United Kingdom in 1992, when BSE was a widespread contagion. Japan has experienced only 24 cases since 2001, while the United States, with a far larger herd, has discovered only two native-born cases since 2003.



by Pete Hisey on Tuesday, April 18, 2006

 

[flounder]

4/18/2006 7:46:00 AM
Steer Suspected Of BSE Tests Negative In Japan



TOKYO (AP)--A 20-month-old steer in northeastern Japan initially suspected of having mad cow disease has tested negative, a health official said Tuesday.



The young Holstein was slaughtered for meat last week in Fukushima prefecture and initially tested positive for the brain-wasting disease.



But further tests at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo showed the steer did not have mad cow disease, according to prefectural health official Shinichi Nakajima.



The case had caused concern because of the steer's young age. The youngest cow to have contracted the disease as of 2005 was a 20-month-old cow found in the United Kingdom in 1992, according to Japan's Food Safety Commission.



Separately, inspectors in Okayama prefecture (state), west of Tokyo, found late Monday that a 6-year-old dairy cow, intended to be slaughtered for meat, has tested positive for the disease, said health official Waichiro Kawai.



Confirmation of the results could come as early as Wednesday, Kawai said. ...............................snip


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