5 cows with mad cow disease fed milk substitute

Japan Policy & Politics, August 26, 2002

YOKOHAMA, Aug. 23 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING, ADDING INFO)

Kanagawa prefectural government officials said Friday a Holstein dairy cow confirmed to be Japan's fifth case of mad cow disease was probably fed a milk substitute which is similar to those given to four other cows earlier confirmed with the disease.

The officials said the milk substitute -- given to calves until they are weaned -- was produced by the same maker which supplied the milk products fed to the first four infected cows.

The dairy farmer who raised the cow, a man in his 60s, denied using meat-and-bone meal (MBM), a prime source of infection of the disease, formally called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the officials said.

The first, second and fourth cow found infected with BSE, all from Hokkaido, were fed the same milk substitute, while the third one born in Gunma Prefecture was fed a different milk substitute with almost the same ingredients.

The milk substitutes were produced at a plant in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, of Scientific Feed Laboratory Co., a subsidiary of Zen-Noh or the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations.

The farm ministry has not confirmed whether the products are the cause of the infection.

The latest findings are based on inspections made Friday by the Kanagawa prefectural government on a dairy farm in Isehara, where the fifth cow confirmed with the disease was raised.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said a 6-year-old female cow had been confirmed infected with the disease in the prefecture southwest of Tokyo.

The diagnosis was later confirmed in a meeting of experts convened Friday at the ministry.

Friday's inspection showed the 47 other cows raised by the farmer so far did not show any symptoms of being infected with the disease.

Following the health ministry's confirmed diagnosis, the prefecture will hold on-site inspections and examine the cows' dates and places of birth, as well as whether they were fed the same feed as the latest infected cow.

The fifth infected cow was born in December 1995, three to four months earlier than the cows in the first four cases, and is the first one found in Kanagawa Prefecture, raising concern that the breadth of the infection may be larger than previously thought.

The farmer brought the cow to a slaughterhouse in the prefecture Wednesday, the day it was scheduled to be shipped as beef cattle, after noticing it could not stand on its feet because its hip was dislocated and legs were inflamed.

It tested positive in a preliminary examination by the meat sanitation inspection house in Atsugi in the prefecture. It also tested positive for the disease in a more detailed examination conducted by the health ministry, the ministry said.

The first infected cow was found in September in Chiba Prefecture. In late November, two cows raised in Hokkaido and Gunma prefectures were also found to have the disease, with the fourth infected cow found May 11 in Hokkaido.