BSE hits Japan

Japan has reported its first case of BSE. The Ministry of Agriculture says
tests on the brain of a 5-year-old Holstein from a dairy in Chiba prefecture,
east of Tokyo, indicate BSE infection. The ministry is sending samples for
further tests outside Japan and is trying to find out where the cow and its feed
came from. Japan has taken strict precautions against BSE since the disease was
confirmed in Britain and has, like many countries, banned British people from
giving blood in Japan in case they pass on vCJD, the human form of the
disease.