OIE/JLTA BSE Symposium held in Tokyo, Japan on 4 July 2002
The Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Symposium was jointly organised by the OIE Regional Representation for Asia and the Pacific and the Japan Livestock Technology Association (JLTA), in collaboration with Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor, in Tokyo on 4 July 2002.
The Symposium was attended by about 650 participants from various fields including livestock producer organisations, agricultural organisations, livestock marketing organisations, feed mills organisations, wholesaler and/or retailer organisations, consumers unions, universities and research institutes, public health organisations including slaughterhouses and meat inspection organisations and the mass media.
The opening addresses were made by Mr Y. Yamashita, President of JLTA and Mr T. Endo, Senior Vice Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Head of BSE Task Forces of MAFF), in which they welcomed all the participants to the Symposium.
Dr T. Fujita, OIE Regional Representation for Asia and the Pacific, served as Coordinator/Moderator for the whole session of the Symposium.
Dr D. Heim, TSE Team Leader, Swiss Federal Veterinary Services, presented her paper on the updated BSE situation worldwide and risk analysis. She talked about the global BSE situation, surveillance systems, in particular targeted surveillance, BSE risk assessment and BSE control measures.
After her presentation, a panel discussion took place on the overall aspects of BSE matters by the following panellists: Dr Heim, Prof T. Onodera, Tokyo University (virologist and BSE expert), Dr K. Kaneko, National Institute of Health (virologist and CJD expert) and Ms N. Hiwasa, Former Secretary General of the Consumers' Union. Major discussions by the panellists were made on the future perspectives of BSE, destruction of prions, education regarding BSE, close linkages between animal health and veterinary public health, recovery of consumers' confidence in meat and future BSE control measures.
The panel discussions were followed by a questions and answers session with participants from the floor. Questions were raised from participants on management of cohort cattle, sources and routes of BSE infection, monitoring and surveillance systems, the future development of prion research and international cooperation on BSE surveillance, diagnosis and control measures, in particular for Asian countries.