Japan ends blanket testing for mad-cow disease

By Miho Yoshikawa

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan dropped its policy of testing all
cattle for the deadly mad cow disease on Monday and will
require checks to be conducted only on cattle that are 21
months or older.

However, blanket testing will in effect continue in Japan
as all local governments have decided to keep checking all
cattle born in their region, a Health Ministry official said.

“Testing will now only be mandatory for cattle aged 21
months or older,” the official said.

Under pressure from the United States, the Japanese
government decided in early May to ease its policy of blanket
testing after the move was approved by the country’s food
safety watchdog, the Food Safety Commission (FSC).

Monday marks the start of the new safety guideline after
the completion of a series of moves needed to revise the law.

Local governments have said, however, that they plan to
continue testing all cattle to reassure consumers about the
safety of their beef.

“As it now stands, all local governments will continue to
test all the cattle in their area,” the ministry official said.

The checks will be fully subsidized by the central
government for a maximum of three years, he said.

Experts believe that younger animals have a lower risk of
developing the brain-wasting disease, formally known as bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Japan began checking all its cattle for BSE in October 2001
after it discovered its own case of mad cow disease, to
reassure Japanese consumers of the safety of domestic beef and
revive beef sales which had plunged.

Mandatory testing, however, became a major sticking point
in talks between Tokyo and Washington on resumption of beef
trade, which was suspended after the United States reported its
first case of mad cow disease in December 2003.

Tokyo had initially said that all meat bound for Japan must
come from cattle that had been checked for mad cow disease, in
line with domestic safety guidelines.

Japan eventually agreed to lower its own safety threshold,
a move that was opposed by many health-conscious consumers who
believe that a blanket test has helped keep beef safe.

After months of talks, Tokyo has agreed to resume some beef
trade, but no timetable has been set for the easing of the
19-month ban, which rests on the FSC’s review of U.S. food
safeguards.

TIMING UNCLEAR

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi avoided giving a clear
answer on the issue in a meeting on Monday with a group of
visiting U.S. congressmen, Kyodo news agency said.

Congressmen Adam Putnam and Tom Cole — both Republicans
and members of a delegation led by House of Representatives
Speaker Dennis Hastert — urged Japan to resume U.S. beef
imports at an early date in the meeting with Koizumi, Kyodo
said.

Koizumi simply said that ensuring food safety for consumers
was vital and that his administration was making efforts to
that end, Kyodo quoted Foreign Ministry officials as saying.

The Japanese government says beef trade cannot resume until
the FSC declares that U.S. beef is safe.

The FSC held its fourth risk assessment meeting on Monday,
and further talks are due to take place.

Health-conscious Japanese consumers are sensitive to
reports about BSE because of a human variant of the disease
that is believed to be contracted by eating contaminated beef.

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), the human version
of BSE, has caused more than 140 deaths worldwide, including
one person in Japan.

Before the ban, Japan was the top U.S. export market for
beef, buying about $1.4 billion a year.

Last week the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it was
retesting a cow that was suspected of having BSE which, if
confirmed, would be the third case reported in the United
States.

The results are expected early this week.

Tokyo has said that it expects the United States to
discover new cases of mad cow disease as it steps up testing
but that would not cause Japan to change its decision to
re-open its borders to American beef.

(Additional reporting by Masayuki Kitano)