The Yokohama Municipal Government and a city-run meat corporation have jointly developed a device that completely removes the spinal cords of slaughtered cows as part of efforts to prevent the spread of mad cow disease.
The device, dubbed Yokohama Safety, uses a specially designed nozzle and a vacuum pump to remove spinal cords, which are where irregular prions, the agent believed to be responsible for the brain-wasting disease, are concentrated in infected cows.
"The device can help reduce the danger of contamination (of the agent)" from cows tainted with BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) to healthy cows and humans, a city official said Monday.
"We will consider marketing it to meat markets across the country," he said, noting the product is priced at between 1 million yen and 2 million yen per unit.
The city will begin using the device today at its central wholesale meat market in Tsurumi Ward.
Japan's second case of mad cow disease, also known as BSE, was confirmed last week. The first case was discovered in September.
BSE was first detected in Britain in 1986, and is believed to originate in cows fed with infected meat and bone meal, which contains parts of other cows.
Human consumption of infected beef is thought to cause a new variant of the fatal human disorder Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. BSE has led to the deaths of more than 100 people in Europe.