Japan's panel expected to recommend lifting US beef ban
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-24 10:58

Japan's food safety panel was expected Monday to recommend that the government lift a 20-month ban on imports of U.S. beef, in line with earlier findings that there was little risk of mad cow disease from American meat, reports said.

The panel is likely to support a resumption of imports of American beef on the condition that it is from cows younger than 21 months and excludes high-risk cow parts such as heads, brains, eyes and spines, national broadcaster NHK reported.

In a preliminary report released earlier this month, the panel _ charged with reviewing the ban _ said the risk of the disease entering Japan in U.S. beef is extremely low if proper precautions are followed.

The panel was to submit its final report on Monday to the Food Safety Commission, and later forward it to the health and agriculture ministries after a month of public hearings. Officials have indicated the government will follow the panel's recommendations, saying a decision should be based on science.

Imports could be resumed as early as December.

Tokyo imposed a ban on American beef in 2003 after one U.S. cow tested positive for the brain-wasting ailment. U.S. officials have called the ban excessive and some lawmakers in Washington have threatened to seek sanctions against Japan if it doesn't lift the prohibition.

Japan has reported 20 cases of mad cow disease, but Japanese authorities test all beef for the disease before it is processed for human consumption. The government agreed to waive tests for cattle under 21 months because experts say risk of infection among cows that age is negligible, but did not extend that waiver to U.S. beef imports.

Before the ban, Japan was the most lucrative overseas market for American beef, importing more than US$1.5 billion worth in 2003. But Japanese concerns about resuming trade mounted in June, when a second U.S. case of mad cow disease was confirmed in a Texas-born cow.

Mad cow disease _ bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE _ spreads to cows that are fed with the remains of other cattle infected with the disease. Infected beef is thought to cause a fatal brain disorder in humans that has killed more than 150 people, mostly in Britain, since the 1990s.