Re: Japan Slaughters 180,000 Pigs, Cows on Foot-and-Mouth Outbreak
Re: Japan Slaughters 180,000 Pigs, Cows on Foot-and-Mouth Outbreak
Source:
http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=505966
Foot-and-mouth disease spreads to Japan's No. 1 livestock center
MIYAZAKI, Japan, June 10 KYODO
The foot-and-mouth animal infectious disease has spread within Miyazaki Prefecture to a city serving as Japan's largest livestock industry center as three cows in Miyakonojo tested positive for the highly contagious disease in genetic tests, local officials said Thursday.
Located about 50 kilometers away from the town of Kawaminami and its vicinity in the southwestern Japanese prefecture and bordering Kagoshima Prefecture, the latest finding shows a failed effort by the central and local governments to contain the epidemic devastating local livestock.
The Miyazaki prefectural government said it has culled all 208 cows at the same farm as the three cows concerned in the city which ranked top among municipalities as producer of pork and beef in terms of value in 2006.
In Tokyo, the government led by new Prime Minister Naoto Kan began discussing how to contain the disease's spread as its first case of crisis management.
''We've reached a critical point, a perilous point,'' Kan said at a meeting, adding, ''I understand that an immediate response is of paramount importance and would like to tackle the problem with a sense of urgency.''
The central government said it will send an additional 30 Self-Defense Forces personnel and 140 police officers to Miyazaki Prefecture to strengthen disinfection work at farms and national highways there.
In Kagoshima Prefecture, also a livestock production center adjacent to Miyazaki Prefecture to the southwest, Gov. Yuichiro Ito said that the situation is in a ''quasi state of emergency'' and that his prefectural government will immediately study any possible action.
Ito told reporters he may issue an order to close some roads and conduct full quarantine checks on motor vehicles.
Also in the city of Hyuga in Miyazaki, which is adjacent to the infected town of Tsuno, north of Kawaminami, a cow is newly suspected of being infected with foot-and-mouth disease, the city government said.
It would be the city's first case of infection if it tests positive for the disease, officials said.
Meanwhile, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said at a morning news conference that he has received a report from the Environment Ministry blaming wild animals for the spread of the infectious disease to Miyakonojo.
On Wednesday, three cows in Miyakonojo were found suspected of being infected with foot-and-mouth disease as they had shown symptoms of the disease, such as salivation and sores on their tongues.
The Miyazaki prefectural government slaughtered all the cows at the farm in question by early Thursday before obtaining results of genetic tests.
It also asked farmers around the farm not to go out of their homes and launched checks on the cows in the area.
The prefectural government plans to impose a ban Thursday on moving livestock within a 10-kilometer radius of the farm and transporting animals from areas within a 20-km radius in hopes to prevent a further spread of the disease.
Since foot-and-mouth disease broke out in Miyazaki Prefecture in late April, about 270,000 cows and pigs have been subjected to slaughter as part of efforts to contain the spread of the disease.
Last week, the Miyazaki government lifted a transfer ban on livestock in Ebino and vicinity, including areas in Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectures, saying no signs of foot-and-mouth disease have since been found in the inland city.
==Kyodo
