Mad cow disease spreads to Asia

Beef is popular in modern Japan

By Charles Scanlon in Tokyo

Japanese officials say they have confirmed the country's first case of BSE, or mad cow disease.

The Agriculture Ministry said one cow was identified with the disease, the first reported case in Asia. The ministry said it was considering sending samples of the animal's brain to Europe for final confirmation.

BSE has already spread across Europe

So far, BSE has been largely confined to Europe.

Japan began checking cattle for BSE last month after warnings that the country could be at risk.

The cow which has tested positive was on a dairy farm in Chiba prefecture just to the east of Tokyo.

Mass outbreak unlikely

A spokesman said the farm had been isolated and an emergency task force set up to consider the next move.

But he said that the chances of a serious outbreak in Japan remained low.

BSE was first detected in the UK in 1986 and is transmitted through meat-and-bone meal fed to cattle. Japan banned imports of beef and beef products from the UK in 1996 and this year it extended the ban to other European countries.

But scientists from the European Union concluded this summer that Japan was still at risk because of earlier imports of animal feed.

The World Health Organisation and other UN agencies have issued several warnings that BSE could spread to Asia because of the international trade in food.