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From: elsiedee@MIT.EDU To: vsg@MIT.EDU Date: Sat, 31 Aug 1996 18:55:48 EDT ------- Forwarded Message Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 16:01:01 -0400 To: jjj@tiac.net, bobbi@clark.net, TheVRG@aol.com, navs@telenet.net From: Vegetarian Resource Center <vrc@tiac.net> Subject: JAPAN FINDS KILLER GERM IN US BEEF INTESTINES JAPAN FINDS KILLER GERM IN US BEEF INTESTINES August 30 1996, TOKYO (Reuter) - The Health Ministry said on Friday it had found the deadly O-157 bacteria, responsible for a food poisoning epidemic in Japan which has killed 11 people, in a sample of imported U.S. beef intestine. A ministry official added, however, that the finding would not prompt any new restrictions on Japan's imports of U.S. beef, noting that imported beef intestines are heat-treated before distribution to the market and this destroys the killer germ. The U.S. embassy said in a statement that the shipment from which the sample was taken had not been distributed for sale in Japan. The Health Ministry official said the bacteria was found on Wednesday at one of the ministry's laboratories and that the U.S. embassy was notified immediately. The embassy said the product was voluntarily destroyed by the importer and that therefore it had no link with the O-157 epidemic. The O-157 colon bacillus has been found responsible for a widespread food poisoning epidemic in Japan that has killed 11 people and made over 9,500 ill this year. The government said earlier this week that the threat from the germ, while still requiring vigilance, appeared to be receding in Sakai, a city near the regional commercial centre of Osaka in western Japan, which has been hit hardest by the deadly bacteria. Health authorities believe school lunches were responsible for the food poisoning in Sakai, but researchers have been unable to pinpoint the exact source of the infection. The outbreak has prompted authorities to tighten sanitary standards at slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants and sparked calls for an overhaul of the nation's school lunch programme. Japan imported 417,105 tonnes of beef in the first seven months of this year, more than half of it from the United States. Beef intestines are sometimes used as ingredients in an inexpensive Japanese stew that includes other animal organs and is popular in the winter. = = = ------- End of Forwarded Message
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