The government said May 24 that 49 seed bulls in Miyazaki Prefecture will be destroyed to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease there, even though local authorities wanted to keep the animals alive.

Veterinarians enter a cowshed May 25 in Kijyo-cho, Miyazaki Prefecture, to check for foot-and-mouth disease. KYODO PHOTO

The decision was confirmed at a meeting between Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano and senior vice farm minister Masahiko Yamada at the prime minister's office.

Before meeting with Hirano, Yamada suggested he wouldn't deviate from the established health rules.

"I think they should be slaughtered," he said. "There is some semen of the bulls left with us, so it is possible to nurture new seed bulls, and the Miyazaki beef brand will not disappear."

Meanwhile, examinations started May 24 on cows and pigs in Ebino, Miyazaki Prefecture, to determine whether it is safe to lift the ban on transferring livestock around the area.

If the animals are confirmed safe, the ban, covering a 10-km radius from the sites of reported outbreaks in Ebino, will be lifted June 4, allowing the transfer of livestock to resume.

A central government task force and the prefectural government have authorized blood and other tests for 160 farms located within 3 km of the farm where the city's first suspected case of the highly infectious disease was found April 28.

About 40 veterinarians will collect blood samples from up to 30 cows from each of the farms during the three-day examination process, and will observe health conditions of pigs and cows in other parts of the 10-km radius.

The last positive case in Ebino was reported May 13.

Kyodo News