BSE - JAPAN
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A ProMED-mail post

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International Society for Infectious Diseases

Date: Sun 19 Jan 2003
From: ProMED-mail <
Source: Kyodo News, [Sun 19 Jan 2003] [edited]

Japan confirms 6th case of mad cow disease
------
Japan reported its sixth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or
mad cow disease on Sun, 19 Jan 2003 after it confirmed the brain-wasting
illness in a cow in Wakayama Prefecture, the Health, Labor and Welfare
Ministry said. The Holstein cow from the town of Shibecha in Hokkaido was
found to have been infected with the disease.
Wakayama city officials said after an initial test that they asked the
National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo for more detailed BSE
tests, which confirmed the cow, born in 1996, was infected with BSE. More
conclusive results will become available as early as Monday, they said.
5 cows had been confirmed infected with BSE in Japan since the [first case
of the] disease was discovered in Chiba Prefecture in September 2001. One
more BSE case each was discovered in Hokkaido and Gunma prefectures in
November 2001, a fourth case again in Hokkaido in May 2002, and a fifth
case in Kanagawa Prefecture in August 2002.
Of the 6 BSE-infected cows born between December 1995 and April 1996, 4
were born in Hokkaido, and one each was born in Gunma and Kanagawa
prefectures, ministry officials said.
The ministry has carried out BSE tests on all cattle for human consumption
since October 2001. The latest case emerged after beef consumption began to
pick up after a sharp drop in beef sales due to shaken public confidence in
the meat industry.
--
ProMED-mail

[Obtaining the figures on the number of tests allegedly carried out by the
Japanese authorities "on all cattle for human consumption since Oct 2001"
will be helpful. (In the comprehensive table on BSE tests worldwide, 10 000
tests in Japan are reported for 2001, but no data are available for 2002:

The BSE issue had a striking effect upon the national dairy and beef
industries and upon their markets; it had its political ramifications and
obviously attracts great attention in Japan. A symposium on BSE, held on 4
Jul 2002 in Tokyo, organized by the OIE, the Japanese Livestock Technology
Association and the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, was attended by about
650 participants.
A comprehensive report on the Japanese investigations into the epidemiology
of BSE in Japan has been published on 1 Nov 2002 in ProMED-mail's posting
20021101.5677. The said report, as well as several earlier postings,
referred, among others, to the possible role which imported animal-feed
ingredients -- including animal fat, intended for calf-milk-replacers --
might have played a role in the introduction of BSE into Japan. The same
issue has been subject to discussions and investigations in other countries
such as Denmark, Finland, and Austria, and reviewed by ProMED-mail.
The possible role of fat products in animal feed is undergoing an extended
study by the Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) of the EU, which has
adopted -- in September 2002 -- the methodology and input parameters to be
used for quantitatively assessing the residual BSE risk in tallow (as well
as in gelatin and dicalcium phosphate). During its meeting of 7-8 Nov
2002, the SSC members came to the conclusion that the application of the
method requires extensive computing capacity and appropriate software and
cannot be done as part of the "homework" of the members of a Working Group.
The Secretariat informed the SSC that it had proposed to the Health and
Consumer Directorate General that this work be contracted out and that it
had launched the corresponding administrative procedure.
The results of these studies are anticipated with great interest. - Mod.AS]
[see also:
BSE update 2003 (01) 20030106.0046
2002
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BSE - Japan 20020511.4172
BSE - Japan (02) 20020515.4210
BSE - Japan (03): source 20020518.4253
BSE - Japan (04) 20020822.5112
BSE - Japan (05): source 20020825.5137
BSE - Japan (06): source 20020901.5206
BSE - Japan (07): source 20020914.5305
BSE - Japan (08): source 20021101.5677
BSE, source, calf milk replacers: suspected 20020621.4563
BSE - European Union: source 20020601.4379
2001
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BSE - Japan: confirmed (04) 20011123.2873, 20011123.2874
BSE - Japan: confirmed (05) 20011202.2938
BSE - Japan: OIE report 20011127.2896
BSE - Japan: source 20011213.3016]
...... mpp/arn/pg/dk
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