Officials from the farm ministry and the Ibaraki Prefectural Government on Sunday inspected a feed manufacturing plant in the town of Hasaki in the prefecture in connection with the botched destruction of a dairy cow suspected of having mad cow disease.
The feed plant is suspected of having used parts of the cow in question to produce bone-and-meat feed for chickens and pigs.
The inspectors questioned plant officials about how the feed was stored and whether it was shipped.
According to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, the cow, a 5-year-old Holstein that had been kept at a dairy farm in the town of Shiroi, Chiba Prefecture, was destroyed in August after showing symptoms of mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. It is widely believed that BSE is spread through the use of contaminated feed.