Beef prices reel from mad cow in Japan

By staff and wire reports

TOKYO, Japan -- Beef prices hit their lowest level in more than a decade this week, as Japan reels from its growing mad-cow crisis.

Authorities confirmed the country's third case of the disease on Sunday, admitting that a cow from Gunma, north of Tokyo, had tested positive.

Mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, can infect people with the deadly human variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. CJD has been blamed for some 100 deaths in Europe.

Japanese officials had long maintained that its beef industry was safe from infection. But after they reported Asia's first case of mad-cow disease on September 10, many consumers have been avoiding buying beef.

Minister: more cases to come

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tsutomu Takebe warned Tuesday that more cases of mad cow would emerge in Japan.

The government has taken heat for keeping consumers in the dark over the disease. Health experts blocked the release of a European Commission report that suggested Japan could see its cows get infected.

Agriculture ministry officials at first said the first cow to test positive, near Tokyo in Chiba province, had been destroyed. They were later forced to backtrack and admit the cow had been turned into cattle feed, leading to a costly recall.

They further undermined their credibility by clinging to a 1996 ban on meat-and-bone feed, blamed as a cause of mad-cow disease.

Authorities said the ban meant it was unlikely Japanese cows would get infected. It later emerged that many cows in Japan had been fed imported European meat-and-bone feed for several years.

Stepping up screening

Takebe said Tuesday his ministry would step up testing of Japanese cows, expanding its efforts to sanitation centers around the country.

The government has been testing cows for the disease since October 18. It has also been criticized for its decision to keep those findings closed, a move it says is necessary to avoid a public panic.

An agriculture ministry official said Wednesday that beef prices for B2 and B3 grades in Tokyo had fallen to 457 yen per kilogram on Monday.

"We have been checking domestic beef prices since 1988, and we can say that Monday's price is the lowest since 1991," the official told Reuters news agency.

Beef sales are off 40-70 percent in Japan since the onset of the crisis.

McDonald's Japan off 20% since IPO

The panic has also taken its toll on restaurant stocks. McDonald's Japan, one of the Tokyo market's highest-profile new offerings this year, is trading 20 percent off its offer price of 4,300 yen.

It closed Wednesday down 0.87 percent at 3,430 yen.

Beef-bowl restaurant chain Yoshinoya D&C Co. has also seen its stock slump, though it closed flat on Wednesday at 189,000 yen.

On the other side of the coin, shares of companies like fresh-fish retailer Uoriki Co. and sushi chain operator Kappa-Create Co. have gained.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's cabinet at the start of the month set aside 26.5 billion yen to combat mad-cow disease in its supplementary budget.