Detection of BSE outbreak in Japan

Introduction: September 12, Japan (qiaoxun): after a suspected case of mad cow disease was found in Chiba County near Tokyo, the Japanese government mobilized to detect the possible outbreak range of mad cow disease At the same time, due to the fear that the report will make consumers lose interest in beef consumption, McDonald's Japan branch and other fast food retail industries are reassuring consumers, saying that their restaurants The beef used in is safe, stressing that they only use beef imported from countries where mad cow disease has not occurred Shares of beef related companies in Japan fell yesterday after news of the discovery of mad cow disease On Monday, Japan's Ministry of agriculture, forestry and Fisheries reported that a 5-year-old Dutch cow in a farm in Chiba Prefecture of Japan had tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, commonly known as mad cow disease The Ministry of agriculture, forestry and Fisheries said it did not know how the cow was infected with mad cow disease, but yesterday government officials thought imported feed might be the culprit The government said it would begin an immediate investigation, including the source of feed used by the farm where the cow is located At a press conference later yesterday, the Ministry of agriculture, forestry and Fisheries said the government would also gradually increase tests on Japanese farms to see if there were other cases of BSE Tsutomu takebe, Minister of agriculture, forestry and Fisheries of Japan, said at a press conference: "it's a shame that such an incident happened, and we apologize for the panic it caused." The discovery of cases of mad cow disease has raised questions about the government's earlier statement, after officials said Japanese farms were strictly inspected and that such cases were unlikely to occur Mad cow disease causes European governments to slaughter livestock on a large scale, which may also be carried out in Japan The disease may lead to a new type of Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (vckd), which has killed at least 105 people so far, almost all of them in the UK News of the suspected cases sent shares in McDonald's Japan, the Japanese arm of the US fast food giant McDonald's, down on expectations that sales of beef patties would decline in Japan if consumers worried about the safety of beef McDonald's said it would distribute pamphlets to all restaurants here by the end of September, emphasizing that its Australian farm beef processing is clean McDonald's imports all the beef from Australia In Australia, BSE has also been reported Yoshino D & C Ltd is considering putting up posters in its restaurants and advertising in newspapers to point out that it only uses imported beef 99% of the beef used in the restaurant chain comes from the United States and 1% from Australia McDonald's Japan shares fell 2.5 percent yesterday to 3490 yen ($28.86), while Yoshino shares fell 9.1 percent to 200000 yen A spokesman for the two companies said it was too early to say how consumers would react to reports of BSE The decline in Japanese beef sales is likely to have a big impact on farms in the US and Australia Last year, Japan imported US beef worth US $1.47 billion, accounting for about half of US $3.05 billion in annual beef and calf exports, according to the US Department of agriculture According to the latest data, Japan produced 428.3 billion yen worth of beef cattle in 1999 It is now difficult to measure the initial reaction of Japanese consumers to a possible outbreak of mad cow disease, because the report comes at a time when a major tropical storm is coming and Tokyo's streets and shops are cold But one shopper said she planned to buy fish or pork "I don't want beef until it's clear," she said Hiroshi IBE, the sun meat operator, said he received several calls yesterday afternoon asking him if it was safe to eat beef "I explained to them that our beef didn't come from Chiba," he said The farm where the case was found was ordered to quarantine 49 of its cows, which were suspected to have been sold, but Japanese officials said their milk was not dangerous to humans BSE experts believe that milk from infected cows is safe Scientists say they believe that one way BSE may spread is through meat and bone meal Last year, Japan imported 54625 metric tons of meat and bone meal from Denmark and Italy The suspected case appears to have caused damage to Japanese farms after South Korea, Singapore and Thailand announced they would stop importing Japanese beef.