Japan PM slams mad cow probe

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi "regrets" the mishandling of the mad cow crisis

TOKYO, Japan -- Japan's prime minister has criticized investigators for mishandling the country's mad cow disease crisis.

Speaking before parliament, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said "narrow bureaucratic considerations" had damaged the government's credibility in dealing with the disease.

"It is truly regrettable that instances of insufficient communication and confused responses by officials have invited distrust in this country's administration," Koizumi said.

Health officials received thousands of inquiries after the government announced last month it had discovered a dairy cow near Tokyo suspected of having the brain-wasting disease.

Agriculture officials said at the time that the animal was destroyed after samples of its brain tissue were taken.

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Days later, however, they revealed that it had been processed into meat-and-bone meal, blaming "miscommunication" with local authorities.

Scientists believe the disease is spread when cattle eat meat-and-bone meal from infected animals. The brain-wasting illness has been linked to the fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob (CJD) disease in humans.

Japan has tried to prevent the disease from entering its borders by restricting blood donations from people who lived in Britain -- where more than 100 cases have been discovered -- since 1980.

Beef-eating party

Health minister Sakaguchi and agriculture minister Takebe sample the steak

In a bid to play down the first report of the disease in Asia, lawmakers met in Tokyo to eat beef and drink milk in a bid to boost demand for the meat.

"Milk, meat and dairy products are 100 percent safe," Agriculture Minister Tsutomu Takebe told The Associated Press news agency.

"Very good! Very tender," said Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa.

However, all the beef had been tested and cleared of the disease before guests dug in, said event sponsor and parliament member Naoto Kitamura.

Meanwhile, consumer advocates belittled the lawmakers' event saying it would do little to reassure Japanese consumers.

"This kind of performance is laughable. They are mocking consumers. What they need to do is take appropriate steps," Hiroko Mizuhara, secretary-general of the Consumers Union of Japan, told Reuters news agency.

More tests, more steps

On Tuesday, the ministry said it was continuing with tests on three more cows that had shown symptoms of the brain-wasting disease.

But Health Minister Chikara Sakaguchi said it was unlikely the three cows also had the disease.

"This is not mad cow," he told Reuters. "There are also other diseases that make it hard for a cow to stand up."

The Health Ministry said on Tuesday it would ban the use of parts of domestically raised cows and sheep as raw materials in medicines and cosmetics.

On Monday, Japan banned the domestic distribution of cattle feed made from meal, a moved criticized as too late by consumer groups.

"Grossly insufficient"

Agriculture minister Takebe says the response to the crisis has been "grossly insufficient"

On Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Takebe was forced once again to apologize to parliament and the public.

"I am very sorry that the administrative response to the mad cow disease problem has been grossly insufficient, and I feel keenly responsible," he told an Upper House plenary session.

The European Commission (EC) said in June that Japan's government had blocked the publication of an EC report warning that BSE could break out here.

"Clearly, there was a possibility of an outbreak here. "They just didn't pay any attention to consumers," Mizuhara told Reuters.