Cows Suspected of Cesium Contamination Top 1,500 in Japan

Tokyo, July 20 (Jiji Press)--The number of cows that may have been contaminated by radioactive cesium before shipments exceeded 1,500 in Japan on Wednesday.
Shipments of 355, 148, 81 and 29 cows possibly fed with cesium-tainted rice straw were confirmed in the prefectures of Gunma, Shizuoka, Iwate and Gifu, respectively.
It was also revealed that about 200 cows shipped from Miyagi Prefecture and about 50 from Niigata Prefecture are suspected of cesium contamination.
Following the reports, the agriculture ministry said it has expanded its survey of rice straw distributors to cover all of the country's 47 prefectures from 16 eastern and northeastern prefectures so far.
In Iwate, northeastern Japan, 583 to 12,984 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium were detected in rice straw at a total of five farms in Ichinoseki and Fujisawa, compared with the government-set limit of 300 becquerels.
The farms are about 200 kilometers north from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the epicenter of the ongoing nuclear crisis.
The Iwate prefectural government issued a ban on rice straw feeding and called on farms to voluntarily suspend cow shipments.
In Shizuoka, central Japan, 2,121 becquerels of radioactive cesium were found in rice straw at a farm in Fujinomiya.
Beef suspected of cesium contamination has been distributed in all prefectures but the western prefecture of Tottori and the southwestern prefecture of Okinawa.
In the southwestern prefecture of Miyazaki, a total of 17.9 kilograms of suspected beef have been sold at two supermarkets in Hyuga.
In Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, about 9.8 kilograms of suspected beef were served in school lunch at an elementary school in June.