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Updated Sunday, October 11, 2009 2:06 pm TWN, AP

Mad cow fears return; Japan suspends beef from U.S. plant

TOKYO -- Japan has suspended beef shipments from an American meat-packing plant after finding cattle parts banned under an agreement to prevent the spread of mad cow disease, the agriculture ministry said Saturday.

Japanese quarantine inspectors found bovine spinal columns in one of 732 boxes sent by Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc., which arrived in Japan last month, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said in a statement. The box contained 35 pounds (16 kilograms) of chilled short loin with spinal bones.

The suspension only affects Tyson's factory in Nebraska, one of 46 meat-packing plants approved to export beef to Japan. The Japanese ministry also asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate how the box containing the banned parts ended up in Japan.

Japan banned all U.S. beef imports in 2003 after the first case of mad cow disease was discovered in the United States. Japan resumed buying American beef in 2006 after a bilateral trade agreement setting new safety standards.

Mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a degenerative nerve disease in cattle. In humans, eating meat products contaminated with the illness is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal malady.

Under the bilateral trade agreement, U.S. exporters must remove spinal columns, brain tissue and other parts considered linked to the mad cow disease. U.S. beef shipments to Japan must also come only from cattle age 20 months or younger, which are believed to pose less of a risk.

Washington has repeatedly criticized Japan for its tough import restrictions, which authorities say have no scientific basis.

U.S. officials have urged Japan to allow imports of beef from cattle aged up to 30 months, a widely used safety standard elsewhere.

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October 13, 2009 hlasny.j@

There is a fear about mad cow disease (BSE). However, the BSE disease is only believed to be linked to the human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD); see the number of cases of vCJD in the United Kingdom has decreased since 2000 to zero level in 2009 (http://www.cjd.ed.ac.uk/figures.htm). In addition, there will be no epidemic of the human form of mad cow disease in Britain, despite fears that the worst is yet to come, (September 2007) an expert said. We are "highly unlikely" to see a resurgence in the fatal brain condition, according to Professor Bob Will, director of the National CJD Surveillance Unit, who was speaking at a medical conference in Edinburgh (http://www.heraldscotland.com/epidemic-of-vcjd-in-uk-highly-unlikely-1.866012).
The only way cattle are known to get the BSE; is by eating feed containing certain tissues from infected animals as meat and bone meal (MBM). However, WHY we found BSE positive animals – more years after a ban on using MBM in dairy rations (see examples from Europe, Canada, Japan)? In addition, there is recent example (May 2009) from Czech Republic when the BSE was found in dairy cow born after the “TOTAL ELIMINATION“ of MBM from the Czech feed industry (November 2003). So there is the evidence that MBM is not an origin about the BSE, and beef is safe in the all world. However, there is other nutritional and not infectious way; I think and believe there are not respected the recommendations about the dietary protein requirements in dairy cows.
The proof about these conclusions; my advice is following concerning to obtain the proof about the "BSE not infectious disease": The BSE disease was tested in dairy cows, see "nutritional experiment" performed in England; published in Veterinary Record (MOORBY et al., 2000) and in Journal of Dairy Science ( DEWHURST et al., 2000; MOORBY et al., 2000). So there is necessary to repeat their nutritional experiment (investigate under “typical“ western European conditions from 1980s- 1990s) according to these authors; by using ryegrass forage heavily of ?nitrogen and potassium fertilized“, and keeping the level of 20% crude protein in dry matter of dairy ration (using protein concentrate- with soy bean meal); during a minimum of six months! I am sure that the BSE will be developed in a minimum of 13 % experimental animals. Why? Because in their trial, also 13% ; six from the 47 experimental of dairy cows developed clinical signs of BSE; after six month incubation period; without meat and bone meal feeding, however with a high protein concentrate feeding. In connection with the protein surplus, ruminants are predominant about the Mg- deficiency, so BSE can be involved. See these relationships, according to my recent presentation at 29th World Veterinary Congress in Vancouver; Neurodegenerative Diseases and Schizophrenia as a Hyper or Hypofunction of the NMDA Receptors (http://www.bse-expert.cz/pdf/Veter_kongres.pdf).


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