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From: TSS (216-119-132-53.ipset12.wt.net)
Japan Finds Another Suspected Mad Cow Case TOKYO Oct 22, 2004 — A Holstein in western Japan tested positive for mad cow disease in a preliminary test conducted Saturday, an official said. If confirmed, the dairy cow would be Japan's 15th animal with the fatal brain-wasting disease, known formally as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. The discovery came as agriculture and health officials from the United States and Japan were meeting in Tokyo to negotiate an end to Tokyo's 10-month-old ban on American beef imports. The talks, originally scheduled for two days, had been extended to a third. Preliminary tests on the cow from a ranch in the state of Mie turned up positive, Mie government official Itaru Okamoto said. Authorities ordered a temporary quarantine on the farm where the cow was raised, he said. Results from more precise testing were likely to be released as early as Tuesday, Okamoto said. He refused to provide further details. Tokyo has checked every slaughtered cow before it entered the food supply since 2001, after its first discovery of mad cow disease. Tokyo imposed a ban on U.S. beef after the first case of mad cow was confirmed in the state of Washington in December. Eating beef from a diseased cow is thought to cause the fatal human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. TSS
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