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Japan reports 2 new possible cases of mad cow disease; more tests planned
Canadian Press
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
TOKYO (AP) - Two cows in northern Japan have tested positive for mad cow disease in preliminary exams, and samples were being sent Tuesday to a laboratory to confirm what would be the country's 18th and 19th cases of the fatal, brain-wasting disease.
Preliminary tests on the cows - an 18-year-old beef cattle and a 10-year-old Holstein - turned up positive late Monday at a dairy health centre in Miyagi, local official Yoshiyuki Konno said.
Samples from the two cows were to be taken later Tuesday to a state-run research centre north of Tokyo for more precise testing, he said. Final results from the secondary tests would be released in several days, he added.
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.
Tokyo has checked every slaughtered cow before it enters the food supply since 2001, after its first discovery of mad cow disease, known formally as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.
Eating beef from an infected cattle is thought to cause the fatal human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Canadian Press
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
TOKYO (AP) - Two cows in northern Japan have tested positive for mad cow disease in preliminary exams, and samples were being sent Tuesday to a laboratory to confirm what would be the country's 18th and 19th cases of the fatal, brain-wasting disease.
Preliminary tests on the cows - an 18-year-old beef cattle and a 10-year-old Holstein - turned up positive late Monday at a dairy health centre in Miyagi, local official Yoshiyuki Konno said.
Samples from the two cows were to be taken later Tuesday to a state-run research centre north of Tokyo for more precise testing, he said. Final results from the secondary tests would be released in several days, he added.
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.
Tokyo has checked every slaughtered cow before it enters the food supply since 2001, after its first discovery of mad cow disease, known formally as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.
Eating beef from an infected cattle is thought to cause the fatal human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
