EDITORIAL: Expanding epidemic

An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease is having a disastrous effect on livestock in Miyazaki Prefecture.

More than 80,000 cows and pigs have been culled so far. The animals suspected of being infected include seed bulls used for breeding the prefecture's prized Miyazaki beef.

Calves sired by Miyazaki stud bulls are also shipped to areas that produce their own brands of prime beef, such as Matsusaka beef and Omi beef.

Several seed bulls have been moved from a facility close to a town hit by foot-and-mouth disease to protect them from infection. A significant reduction in the supply of calves from Miyazaki would likely be felt nationwide. The government needs to step up its policy efforts to contain the outbreak and minimize the losses.

Foot-and-mouth is a viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, such as cattle, pigs and sheep. Symptoms include blisters inside the mouth, high fever and a decline in milk production and meat quality.

Highly contagious, the disease is one of the biggest threats to domestic livestock.

This is the first outbreak of the disease in Japan since spring 2000, when it was detected for the first time in 92 years. At that time, 740 cows were culled in Miyazaki Prefecture and Hokkaido.

This time around, the first instance of foot and mouth was discovered on April 20 in Miyazaki Prefecture. A ban was imposed on the movement of livestock within a 10-kilometer radius of the site.

Since the beginning of May, the number of new cases has increased sharply, mainly among pigs. It seems the infection was spread by humans, rubbing the virus into the dirt with their shoes or through their clothes.

The number of animals culled since the beginning of the current outbreak is already more than 100 times larger than the total of the last outbreak.

The virus responsible for the previous outbreak affected only cattle. This time around, the disease is spreading among pigs and other animals.

In 2001, a foot-and-mouth outbreak in Britain grew into a costly epidemic. This was partly due to a delay in the discovery of the virus. Several million animals were destroyed. The virus that caused the crisis affected not only cattle but also pigs, sheep and other animals.

A gene analysis has found that the virus now spreading in Japan bears striking similarities to a strain that has caused outbreaks in South Korea and Hong Kong. It is possible the virus was brought into Japan from those areas by livestock products and humans. South Korea is still struggling to contain the outbreak, which began in January.

There was a clear risk of the virus entering Japan. A postmortem is needed to determine whether the nation was sufficiently equipped to deal with this danger.

Many farmers in the affected areas have no choice but to keep feeding animals that have been designated for culling because they don't have sufficient space to bury them.

The affected cattle farmers are suffering from both economic and psychological damage. Policy support to these farmers is important also for halting the spread of the disease. So far, the outbreak has been limited to certain areas within Miyazaki Prefecture. But there are reasonable concerns that the virus may spread to other parts of the nation.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano on Sunday visited the southern prefecture and discussed with Miyazaki Governor Hideo Higashikokubaru what steps can be taken to deal with the problem.

Under the law, prefectural governments are primarily responsible for dealing with the outbreak of a livestock disease.

But given the risk of the foot-and-mouth outbreak spreading from Miyazaki to other prefectures and large-scale losses being incurred, the central government should take the initiative in policy efforts to handle the situation.

Consumers, for their part, should act in a cool-headed manner. Meat from infected animals doesn't enter the food chain. Even if people eat such meat, they don't become infected with the disease.

It's bad enough that the farmers are grappling with this outbreak. What they don't need are inaccurate rumors that could further hurt their businesses.

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 17