Prize bull succumbs to FMD
24/05/2010
China’s state news agency, Xinhua, has said that the globally renowned cattle breeding region in Miyazaki Prefecture, on the eastern coast of the island of Kyushu in southern Japan, is “essentially on lock-down” following the outbreak. Miyazaki Prefecture is famous for producing Wagyu beef known for its tenderness and fatty, marbled texture. The beef can sell for as much as $320 a kilo and the hides are also prized because farmers feed the cows a special diet (including beer), groom them by hand and give them regular massages to keep their stress levels low.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations is still awaiting an official request from the Japanese government for advice and support, according to Xinhua, despite offering experts who can travel to Japan to help. It said the FAO had been critical of the Japanese government's response so far, saying it had not moved quickly enough to identify and take the necessary measures to counter the disease.
One measure that the authorities did take was to put six highly valued Miyazaki seed bulls into isolation to stop them from contracting FMD, so that breeding could continue right away when the disease had been eradicated from Japan. However, news reports on May 24 have indicated that one of the bulls, named Tadafuji, has tested positive for FMD and been slaughtered. The government has decided to observe the other bulls for at least ten days and conduct several tests on them because they too are suspected to have contracted the disease. If this is confirmed, industry observers have said the Wagyu beef trade will be devastated.
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