http://www.boston.com/dailynews/346/world/Report_Tokyo_suppressed_EU_fin:.shtml

Report: Tokyo suppressed EU finding that Japan was at risk for Mad Cow outbreak

By Associated Press, 12/12/2001 22:49

TOKYO (AP) A European Union study claiming Japan was at high risk for mad cow disease was never published because of objections from the Japanese government, the nationwide newspaper Mainichi reported Thursday.

The newspaper account was published two days after the government announced that a fourth cow was suspected of carrying the brain-wasting disease. Three other cases in Japan have been confirmed since September.

The EU study claimed Japanese policies were misguided and would increase the likelihood of contagion rather than preventing it, Mainichi reported. The newspaper cited a 12-page document dated Feb. 1 that it said was authored by a team of European experts on mad cow disease.

The EU researchers said Japan ranked 3 on a risk scale of 4, meaning that while no mad cow cases had been confirmed at the time, there was a high possibility that animals had already been infected, the newspaper said.

It said the Japanese government asked the EU to conduct the study, which began in 1998. But after learning the outcome, it said, the Ministry of Agriculture suppressed the report in June and stifled its publication.

An official at the Agricultural Ministry's animal health division declined to comment early Thursday on the Mainichi report.

Mad cow disease is believed to spread through recycled meat and bones from infected animals used in cattle feed. Japan is the only country in Asia where herds have been affected by the disease, which has ravaged Europe's beef industry.

It is linked to a human brain-wasting disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which has killed about 100 people in Europe and is believed to spread through eating infected meat.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001