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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

U.S. tests on BSE are inadequate: expert opinion

The Cabinet Office's Food Safety Commission expert committee vice chair Kaneko Kiyotoshi acknowledged that U.S. tests on BSE are inadequate and that there is a possibility that the panel will be unable to advise the government about resuming U.S. beef imports.

Kaneko stated this in answer to Japanese Communist Party House of Councilors member Kami Tomoko at the House agricultural committee meeting on June 27.

Asked by Kami whether an accurate appraisal of BSE infection is possible, Kaneko, who attended the meeting as a witness not under oath, said that no accurate assessment is possible due to the inadequacy of U.S. tests and lack of data.

Kami said, "The panel should not advise the government to resume U.S. beef imports because the accurate age of the cow is not known."

Unlike Japan and European countries, the United States has no mandatory livestock identification system to trace the place or date of birth. Despite this difference, the government is urging the expert panel to assess the risk of U.S. beef which is presumed to be from cows of 20 months or younger.

Sakaguchi Masaaki, secretary general of the National Campaign for the Defense of the People's Food and Health, published a statement on June 27 on the second BSE cow found in the United States.

It said that the recent finding has proved the suspicion that BSE-infected cows may have passed the faulty tests, and that the United States should require all beef cattle to undergo BSE tests. - Akahata June 28, 2005