Fourth BSE Case Confirmed in Japan

TOKYO - May 13/02 - SNS -- New incidences of mad cow disease in Japan and foot and mouth disease in hogs in South Korea has sent a shudder through livestock markets in the region.

This is the fourth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Japan, which has resulted in a dramatic decrease in beef consumption in Japan. Consumers are fearful because some researchers believe if people eat beef infected with BSE, they stand a greater chance of contracting the human variant of the brain wasting disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). An estimated 100 people have died of the disease in Europe.

Declining beef consumption has hurt exporters in Australia and other countries which have supplied beef to Japan, while shippers in those same countries are working to boost pork shipments to take advantage of the movement of some demand between the two meat products as well as continuing bans on imports of hogs from South Korea.

According to information compiled by Meat and Livestock Australia, imported meat stocks are rising in Japan. March closed with 168,050 metric tons (MT) on hand, up 6% from February, and 14% above year earlier levels. Stocks of beef in the Tokyo area have closed at over 40,000 MT each month from October 2001, and peaked in March at 46,760 MT, up from 40,907 MT in March 2001 and February figures of 45,675 MT.

Stocks of imported pork and chicken have also started to increase, with imported chicken stocks up 28% year on year. Imports of chicken have been strong this year, as traders turned to other meats when consumption of beef slumped following the confirmation of BSE in Japan in September. Imports of chicken were up 30% in the first quarter of this year, with strong increases in imports from Thailand and Brazil.

This has resulted in strong increases in prices in Japan. Pork carcass prices were trading at an average price of ¥536/kg on the Tokyo Wholesale Market last week, an increase of 21% compared with May 2001. Chicken prices are also much stronger, with chicken breasts increasing 34% year on year in March, to ¥263/kg. Chicken legs were also stronger, up 5% year on year to ¥650/kg.

South Korea is one country which would like to capitalize on the change in consumption patterns, but its hopes of restarting exports to Japan were hurt by additional outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in South Korea's hog herd. Agriculture officials confirmed another two farms have infected animals for a total of eight.

Though meat from animals infected with the disease does not pose a health risk to humans, the outbreaks of foot and mouth disease have combined with e incidence of BSE in Japan to dampen demand for all meat products in Korea.