Japan looks to ease mad cow tests
JAPAN - Japan's food safety panel on Friday said it would recommend waiving mad cow disease tests for cattle younger than 21 months -- a step that could lead to the resumption of U.S. beef imports and head off threats of trade sanctions by American...

2 cows test negative for BSE
JAPAN - Two cows in Miyagi Prefecture earlier suspected of having mad cow disease have tested negative, prefectural government officials said Wednesday. The black Japanese cow, born in 1987, and the Holstein, born in 1995, had tentatively tested positive...

Two cows tentatively test positive for BSE in Miyagi
JAPAN - Two cows in Miyagi Prefecture tentatively tested positive for mad cow disease earlier this month, prefectural government officials said Tuesday. The two animals are a black Japanese cow born in 1987 and a holstein born in 1995, the officials...

17th case of mad cow disease confirmed in Japan
JAPAN - A four-and-a-half year-old Holstein cow has been diagnosed as the 17th case of mad cow disease in Japan, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry said Friday. The cow had been kept in north Japan's Hokkaido region. It was born in September...

Japan ruling opens door to US beef exports
JAPAN - A Japanese food safety panel has said that relaxing domestic cattle testing standards for BSE won't put consumers at risk, raising the possibility of Japan reopening its borders to US beef. The announcement that slaughtered cattle 20 months...

Researcher identifies substances that could prevent BSE
TOKYO - A Japanese scientist said Thursday she has identified two substances that prevent the production of an abnormal protein believed to cause mad cow disease and its human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The finding by Naoko Iwanami, a researcher...

Easing testing for BSE
JAPAN - Many hurdles remain for U.S. beef imports. The government seems poised to ease its blanket testing of all cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the world's toughest controls against mad cow disease. An expert panel under the government's...

Japan mad cow panel approves easier test policy
JAPAN - Under intense pressure from the United States, Japan moved a step closer to easing a ban on U.S. beef on Monday after the government won approval for plans to drop its policy of testing all cattle for mad cow disease. Source: Reuters<...

Japan: It's not the border, it's the BSE
JAPAN - A Japanese agriculture official last week dismissed U.S. claims that Tokyo is more likely to resume imports of North American beef if the U.S. ends its ban on Canadian cattle. Japan’s Agriculture Undersecretary Mamoru Ishihara says what matters...

Japan Gives No Timetable on Ending US Beef Ban
TOKYO - Japan declined to give the United States a timetable for ending its costly ban on imports of US beef, saying on Saturday that while it understood US concerns, more time was needed. US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, in Tokyo as part of...

Research slowed BSE decision
JAPAN - The Food Safety Commission's delay in reaching a broad agreement to approve the relaxation of rules requiring blanket tests on cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy can largely be attributed to the difficulty of exploring a wide range...

Blanket-testing cattle for BSE makes no sense - Editorial
JAPAN - Is it really necessary for Japan to insist on having cattle blanket-tested for mad cow disease, a regime without parallel internationally? The Cabinet Office's Food Safety Commission should promote discussion on the issue soon with a view to...

Ministry tightening blood ban over CJD
JAPAN - The health ministry, aiming to quell fears of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, will ban blood donations from people who stayed in Britain or France for even a single day between 1980 and 1996, ministry officials said Tuesday. The plan, however, has...

Japan bans blood donations from travellers to the UK or France
TOKYO - Japan will ban people who spent even a single day in Britain or France from 1980 to 1996 from donating blood over fears of spreading the human version of mad cow disease, a health official said Tuesday.      "We plan to...

Japan considers re-opening U.S. beef exports
JAPAN - The possibility that Japan may lift its ban could not come fast enough for the U.S. beef industry, which has been shut out of what was an annual $1.7 billion in beef sales to Japan prior to the ban. Japan, the world’s biggest consumer of beef...

Japan Has 15th Case of Mad Cow Disease
JAPAN - Japan has confirmed its 15th case of mad cow disease in a cow from the country's north, the government said Saturday. The 8-year-old Holstein cow was already dead when it was brought in for testing from a ranch in Hobetsu, Hokkaido state earlier...

Japan agrees to speed up process to resume Canadian beef imports
JAPAN - Japan said it has agreed with Canada to speed up expert-level talks over madcow disease in an effort to resume Canadian beef imports in the future. The announcement was made after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi met his Canadian counterpart...

Panelists Oppose Resumption Of Canada Beef Imports
JAPAN - Japan is not nearly as close to resuming imports of American beef as the U.S. Department of Agriculture has indicated, and reopening the U.S. border to Canadian cattle will make regaining Japanese trust even more difficult, Sen. Tim Johnson...

Nation's first BSE victim
JAPAN - The first human case of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) has been found in Japan. The disease is believed to be caused by eating the brain, spinal organs or other nervous system tissues of cows infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy...

Japan confirms first case of vCJD
JAPAN - Japan has confirmed its first case of the human variant of mad cow disease. The Health Ministry said the unnamed man had died after contracting the fatal brain illness vCJD. Source: BBC News