Numerous press reports indicate that Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has confirmed its 22nd bovine spongiform encephalopathy case in a 5-year-and-4-month-old cow that died last week on a Hokkaido farm.
According to the reports, Japanese officials say the cow was born in September 2000, before
Japan’s 2001 feed control rules took effect. An investigation is now under way.
News of the case comes just days after
Japan suspended
U.S. beef imports when a shipment of
U.S. veal containing bones not approved under a U.S.-Japan agreement arrived at
Narita Airport in
Japan.
The
U.S. and
Japan resumed two-way beef trade in December.