Foot-and-mouth scourge spreads in Japan

Foot-and-mouth has spread to Miyakonojo, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan's biggest livestock center, with three cows testing positive for the highly contagious disease, local officials said Thursday. Also, cows in the previously unaffected city of Hyuga and an unaffected area in the city of Saito, both in Miyazaki, are now highly suspected of being infected based on visible symptoms, agriculture ministry officials said. Located about 50 km away from the infected town of Kawaminami and bordering Kagoshima Prefecture, the Miyakonojo outbreak shows that efforts by the central and local governments have failed to contain the epidemic devastating local livestock.

The Miyazaki Prefectural Government said it has slaughtered all 208 head of cattle at the farm with the three cows. Miyakonojo ranked highest in volume of beef production as well as pork production in Japan in 2006, with beef volume amounting to about ¥15.1 billion and pork ¥22.5 billion, the city said. It will also slaughter all animals on the farms in Hyuga, north of Kawaminami, where a cow is newly suspected of being infected, and Saito, southwest of Kawaminami, where two are suspected among some 580 cows, the officials said. Prime Minister Naoto Kan instructed his government Thursday to increase the number of police and Self-Defense Forces personnel dispatched to the prefecture.