Livestock farmers widely gave cows a type of feed made from a mixture of powdered fish meal and meat-and-bone meal until the government prohibited the use of meat-and-bone meal in September because of its suspected link to mad cow disease, industry sources said Wednesday.
The mixed feed was originally developed for poultry, but many farmers used the feed, known as adjusted fish meal, for cows as well, the sources said.
Since the outbreak of mad cow disease in September, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry has been conducting a nationwide study on the use of meat-and-bone meal for cows, but this special kind of fish meal has not been targeted.