Second suspected mad cow disease case found in Tokyo
( 2001-10-12 11:24 ) (7 )

A second Japanese cow, slaughtered in Tokyo may have mad cow disease, brain tests conducted by government researchers indicated, an official said on Friday.

"The government informed us late last night that mad cow disease is suspected," said Koji Okuzawa from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government gave samples of a cow's brain, nerve tissue and spinal cord to the central government on Wednesday to test for mad cow disease test or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Signs of the disease were detected in the brain sample, Okuzawa said.

If confirmed, it would be Japan's second case of BSE after the first confirmation of mad cow disease in Asia on September 22.

"We are waiting to see if this is mad cow disease or not," Okuzawa said.

BSE is a brain-wasting illness linked to the fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. The condition has killed about 100 people in Britain since the mid-1980s.

Japan banned all sales of MBM products on October 4 after admitting in September it could not guarantee that meal processed from a Japanese cow diagnosed with BSE or mad cow disease had not re-entered the food chain.