The official announcement from headquarter Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Japan about Mad-Cow Disease.
According to research that is conducted by U.K. researchers. The mad cow disease only
infected several cow organs such as (brain, spinal cord, distal ileum, eye). The other parts
from cow are not infected by mad-cow-disease. The research was conducted by using
mouse as a testing target. All organs from a cow, which was infected by mad-cow disease was given to mouse. And the infection only happened when mouse eat brain, spinal cord
and distal ileum eye from infected cow. So with other word, Beef and milk are safe from
mad-cow disease.
Up until now, There aren’t that kind of research yet. So there is no exact amount or limit
about how much abnormal prion (pathogenic bacteria) can be consume or absorbed by
human body until it becomes an infection.
In an experiment, It doesn’t mean that if we consume or absorb the same amount of
abnormal prion, we will be infected by that disease. Because there are a lot of people who are not infected.
Actually, abnormal prion is neutralized and decomposed by human organ naturally. So the abnormal prion become harmless. But, the abnormal prion is absorbed by the body without any processes also exist. In other case, the abnormal protein is not being neutralized nor
processed at all, but just transport through the body and then being secreted.
Because of different species between cow and human, the mad-cow disease infection in
human is very difficult. The probability mad-cow infection in human is very low, compare
with mad-cow disease infection probability in cow. In U.K., among 180.000 mad-cow
disease outbreak, the incidence of vCJD in humans has been one in 5 million.
Based on this fact and this data, mad-cow disease outbreak in Japan is nothing compare
with U.K.. In addition, in Japan, Blanket test is performed. So this reduces the risk
significantly. Besides that, In Japan, the brain cow is not consumed by people. So the risk mad-cow disease in Japan is very small.
According to Prof. Yoshikawa from Tokyo University, the probability mad-cow disease
infection in human is 0.005~0.007. According to Kondo Professor from Open University of
Japan, from 3 mad-cow disease infected cow, the probability infection in human is
1/(6x1011).