Japan: We'll Wait On U.S. Beef

Japan said Monday that it is too soon to discuss lifting its ban on American beef, saying that officials should first establish the facts surrounding the discovery of a case of mad cow disease in the United States.

Meanwhile, investigators and retailers in eight states and a territory are scrambling to recover meat that may have come from a Holstein stricken with deadly mad cow disease.

But federal officials are quick to say there's little risk to humans, in the U.S. or Japan.

"We're taking this action out of an abundance of caution," said Department of Agriculture chief veterinarian Ronald DeHaven on CBS News' The Early Show Monday. "We know based on scientific evidence that the meat is not one of the tissues where the infectious agent ... that causes the BSE resides."

Mad cow disease, known formally as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, is a concern because humans who eat brain or spinal matter from an infected cow can develop a brain-wasting illness, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. During a mad cow outbreak in the 1980s, 143 people died of it in Britain.

But the two cases are not comparable, DeHaven told Early Show co-anchor René Syler.

"Very few eat brain or spinal cord" in the U.S., he said, and knowledge about BSE is much more advanced now.

"We've tested over 20,000 of those animals over the last several years and haven't found a positive animal. This is the very first one," he said.

Dr. Kenneth Petersen, a department veterinarian, said Sunday that an investigation revealed that meat from the infected dairy cow could have reached retail markets in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho and Montana and the territory of Guam — more locations than originally thought.

Despite their assurances of food safety, federal officials have taken the precaution of recalling 10,000 pounds of meat from the infected cow and from 19 other cows slaughtered Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co., in Moses Lake, Washington.

DeHaven said Monday that there are no plans to expand the recall.

Ranchers in Washington state, where the one instance of the disease was found, are worried about their futures.

"We've had two bad years in the milk market, really bad years, the worst ... that most dairy farmers have ever experienced," spokesman Case VanderMeulen told Steve Knight of CBS radio affiliate KIRO.

Now beef prices are falling, and nearby livestock auctions are closed.

"The cows who were ready to go for slaughter for us, we can't bring them to the sale at this point in time," VanderMeulen said.

Japanese Agriculture Ministry officials met with a U.S. delegation that came to Tokyo to discuss the discovery of the disease in a Holstein in Washington State that has prompted more than two-dozen countries to ban American beef imports.

Japan is the largest overseas market for U.S. beef, importing more than $1 billion-worth last year.

The U.S. delegation asked to discuss lifting the ban, a Japanese official said on condition of anonymity.

"First we have to confirm the facts, so it's too early to have such a discussion," the official said.

A U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the meeting was intended primarily to brief Japanese authorities on efforts in the United States to investigate the case and to investigate the route of infection, which has been tentatively traced to Canada.

Japanese agriculture officials said the delegation, which was led by a trade adviser to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, assured them that the United States would soon announce more stringent safety measures.

Japan suffered an outbreak of mad cow disease two years ago, prompting authorities to adopt a system under which all cattle bound for slaughter in the country are tested for the disease.