Japan has Another BSE Case

[Anonymous]

Japan Detects 16th Mad Cow Case; Animal To Be Incinerated

Today 3/27/2005 7:41:00 AM


Japan Detects 16th Mad Cow Case; Animal To Be Incinerated


TOKYO (AP)--Japan has confirmed its 16th case of mad cow disease in a

9-year-old cow from northern Japan, the government said Sunday.



Experts concluded that the Holstein cow from Teshio town in northern Hokkaido
prefecture was infected with mad cow after analyzing samples taken this week,

the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.



"All meat, internal organs and parts from this cattle will be incinerated,

and there is no danger that they will be circulated in the market," the

ministry statement said.



Eating beef from an infected cow is thought to cause the fatal human variant

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Older cattle are considered more vulnerable to the

disease.



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.



It has also blocked all U.S. beef imports since the first U.S. case of mad

cow was confirmed in December 2003.



Japan's latest case comes amid increasingly insistent calls from Washington

that Tokyo lift its 15-month ban, amid cautious support in Japan for Japanese

testing standards to be eased, which would clear the way for U.S. beef products

to re-enter the market.



Japan's food safety board is considering waiving tests for cattle aged 20

months or younger -a proposal made by the United States on the basis of

scientific evidence indicating that the proteins associated with mad cow

disease do not accumulate in cows so young.



A Japanese government panel has backed that proposal. But Tokyo says a final

decision rests with Japan's Food Safety Commission, which meets again Monday.



Despite pressure from visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this

month, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura refused to set a time frame,

repeating that Tokyo's top priority was food safety.



Before the ban, Japan was the most lucrative overseas market for U.S. beef

producers, buying $1.7 billion in beef in 2003.

 

[PORKER]

Japanese SUPERMARKETS and Restaurants display cattle information for beef menu items

by Kristin Gagnon

Source of Article: www.meatingplace.com

Tsubame Corp., an operator of Tsubame restaurants in Tokyo and neighboring Kanagawa Prefecture, now displays information on beef menu items at each of its 21 restaurants, according to the Japan Weekly Monitor.

The information displayed includes the identification number for each slaughtered cow, the producer's name and address, the date the animal was screened for bovine spongiform encephalopathy and the name of the testing agency.

The All-Japan "Yakiniku" Association, comprised of small to mid-size beef businesses, has proposed that its member restaurants list similar information for roast beef and for meat taken from the rib-area.

The beef traceability law enacted in December 2003 mandates that 10-digit identification numbers be placed on packages of beef sold at supermarkets and other stores. If beef accounts for at least 50 percent of total sales, retailers and restaurants must begin following the law in December 2004.

The law will not cover foreign beef, ground meat and cow innards.

The National Livestock Breeding Center's Web site will provide consumers with birth and breeding information for each cow based on identification numbers.

 

[Maple Leaf Angus]

Japanese SUPERMARKETS and Restaurants display cattle information for beef menu items

by Kristin Gagnon

Source of Article: www.meatingplace.com


The law will not cover foreign beef, ground meat and cow innards.

The National Livestock Breeding Center's Web site will provide consumers with birth and breeding information for each cow based on identification numbers.

With the above noted Japanese sensitivity to the safety of the beef they consume, I'm sure that if the US keeps on twisting their arm to buy beef on the US's terms, it just a short matter of time until the Japanese cave in and buy North American beef as is again.



Yeah, right.

 

[PORKER]

WHEN you see that this data is REQUIRED in Japan you wonder how DUMB the STATUS QUO is ??????????The information displayed includes the identification number for each slaughtered cow, the producer's name and address, the date the animal was screened for bovine spongiform encephalopathy and the name of the testing agency. We probably could be selling beef to JAPAN as a few head have been tested (210,000)BUT the PACKER has NO way of keeping track of the Animal Parts in the plant let alone the above mentioned COW data.