NODA, Chiba Pref. -- It is worse than the market collapse during the economic slump triggered by the 1973 oil crisis, when beef prices plunged by two-thirds.

Back then, many cattle ranchers were forced out of business. But at that time, they did not face the need to restore the public's trust, said Hisao Ogura, 66, who raises some 240 beef cows at a family-run farm in this suburb about two hours from Tokyo.

Their nightmare began on Sept. 10, when the farm ministry said that a 5-year-old Holstein was suspected of having mad cow disease -- the first case outside of Europe.

The cow, which later tested positive for the disease by a British government agency, was born in Hokkaido and for the past three years was kept at a dairy farm in Shiroi, Chiba Prefecture.

News of the case triggered public concerns about the safety of beef and cow byproducts, dealing a serious blow to cattle raisers, the meat industry and eateries.

Both producers and consumers accuse the government of failing to properly address the outbreak in Europe years ago and of engaging in poor public relations in the wake of the latest discovery.

"If the serious slump in beef consumption continues for months, all cattle raisers in Chiba will be forced out of business," Ogura lamented.

A couple of days after the ministry announcement, Ogura and his son, Yoshihiko, 38, hauled four cows to a market in Saitama Prefecture, only to go home with all of them after seeing the beef price plunge by half.

Ogura's farm raises hybrid Holstein/Japanese black cows. Called "table meat" in the industry, they usually fetch around 1,000 yen per kg. However, after the news of the mad cow case, they sold for around 400 yen per kg.

"That makes only 200,000 yen per head," Yoshihiko said. "It costs at least 300,000 yen to raise one to prime."

To alleviate anxiety, the government took measures to assure the public of the safety of domestically raised cows.

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry finished spot checks on the country's 4.6 million beef and dairy cows earlier this month and declared that none carried mad cow disease.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry ordered the incineration of "specific risk material" designated by the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health -- cow brains, spinal cords, eyeballs and ileum (the last 1-meter of the cow's 40-meter-long small intestine) -- at meat plants. In addition, all cows aged 30 months and over will be given a closer examination at meat plants starting Oct. 18.

Despite assurances by authorities that meat reaching tables is safe and a recent beef-eating display staged by Diet members for the media, the public remains wary.

According to Consumers Cooperative Tokyo, beef sales were down by 40 percent at its 82 stores during the week of Sept. 17, compared with the same week a year ago. The education ministry said that as of Monday, 11,203 schools in 44 prefectures -- more than one-third of public elementary schools and junior high schools nationwide -- stopped serving beef in lunches.

Critics say the farm ministry's sloppy handling of the matter ignited deep distrust in consumers, who have already had their fill of corruption and coverup scandals involving government bureaucrats in recent years.

When the mad cow case was announced Sept. 10, the farm ministry stepped in and said the infected cow had been incinerated. Four days later, the ministry retracted its statement. The bones of the cow had in fact been processed and mixed into meat-and-bone meal (MBM) before being shipped to warehouses.

"Since then, the public does not trust anything the government says, even the scientifically proven fact that milk is safe," said Toshiyuki Watanabe, 39, a dairy farmer in Sodegaura, Chiba Prefecture. "People are not sure who to trust anymore."

Watanabe has taken things into his own hands, spending his free time collecting scientific papers related to the issue and posting them on his Internet home page.

"I understand consumers' fears," he said. "So, what I can do is keep disseminating reliable information in plain, easy-to-read language."

"The damage (from the mad cow scare) was inflicted by the farm ministry," said Nobuko Hiwasa, director of the National Liaison Committee of Consumers' Organizations. "It is wrong to think consumers are merely panicking. It is their last resort as self-defense in response to the unreliable actions of authorities."

Compounding the problem is authorities' inability to pinpoint the route of infection. While it is believed the infected cow contacted the disease through MBM containing contaminated animal carcasses, the search has turned up nothing.

Infected MBM is suspected of spreading abnormal protein prions -- the source of the disease.

Consumers are aghast at the farm ministry's slow response in moving to ban imported MBM, despite the epidemic that swept through Britain and parts of Europe caused by contaminated feed.

Despite banning MBM imports from Britain in 1996, the farm ministry continued to allow feed imported from other European Union countries until January.

Farm ministry guidelines released in 1996 said MBM processed from cows could be fed to pigs and chickens but should not be fed to cows. But some farmers still did not understand the seriousness of the issue, while others were completely unaware of the 1996 ministry guidelines.

As of Tuesday, according to the farm ministry, at least 169 farms in 20 prefectures have been feeding animal-protein, including MBM, to their cows.

One dairy farmer did not even realize he was using MBM until he was told about the contents of the feed stored in his barn, farmer Ogura said, relating a story he heard from a veterinarian.

According to World Trade Organization rules, a comprehensive ban on feed must extend to domestically produced products as well. This, industry insiders suspect, is the reason for the farm ministry's lukewarm stance toward banning imported MBM.

It wasn't until this week that the farm ministry, faced with a continuing decline in consumer demand for beef, imposed a comprehensive ban on the distribution of imported and domestically produced MBM.

"In a sense, we are also victims," said Tatsunori Araki, director of the Japan Livestock Byproduct Association, the MBM producer group.

In the rendering process, the skin, bones and scrap internal organs of processed livestock are mixed and crushed. Grease extracted in the process is used for cosmetics, soap and medical products, while the remaining powder is mixed with grain and used for animal feed.

According to Araki, the use of MBM was introduced to Japan from the U.S. and Europe in the 1950s. It spread across the country in the 1970s because it is cheaper and more stable than fish powder, the previous alternative.

MBM, rich in protein and mineral, sped up cows' growth and boosted milk production. In recent years, some 400,000 tons of MBM were being produced annually, making up an average of 1.8 percent of the ingredients of mixed feed given to chicken and pigs.

The total ban on MBM means increased costs for pig and chicken feeds. According to an official of a major livestock feed producer in Yokohama, if feed producers have to replace MBM with soybean oil cake, the cost of chicken feed will rise by around 500 yen per ton, which will likely translate into higher meat and poultry prices overall.

Industry people emphasize that MBM, which seems to have become public enemy No. 1 in the ongoing mad cow scare, has in fact played a significant role in Japan's farming industry, providing an efficient means of recycling.

If the use of MBM is halted, the 4,400 tons of livestock scrap produced every day at meat processing plants nationwide will be nothing more than garbage.

The official from the Yokohama feed producer said he expects MBM will eventually be used again in feed for livestock other than cows after its safety is confirmed.

Meanwhile, some meat industry people are accusing the media of "unnecessarily" alarming the public.

Shokin Ishihara, who runs Taiseien, a Korean barbecue restaurant in Tokyo's Minato Ward, said he was shocked to see video footage of staggering cows in other countries that has been repeatedly shown in news programs.

"I wouldn't say it's a lie, but is it necessary to show it that often?" said Ishihara, whose restaurant saw sales fall by more than 60 percent since late September. "Nobody wants to eat beef when they are shown that again and again. It is very heartrending if people have to give it up."

He demanded that authorities and the media, when explaining which cow parts are safe and unsafe to eat, should speak in "menu" terms, using the words "mino," "senmai," "hachinosu," and "giara" -- all names used on restaurant menus for a cow's four stomachs, which have been deemed safe to eat.

"Korean barbecue was perfected here by Japanese-Koreans," Ishihara reckoned. "And Japanese beef is the best in the world."