Japan plans to lift an import ban on cow zygotes from nations hit by mad cow disease following a recommendation by a government food safety panel.
The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry will allow the import of these zygotes on condition that they are extracted under international criteria and taken from cows free of the disease, ministry officials said Thursday.
The ministry will keep the import ban intact on zygotes taken from cows in the same farm as those infected with mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, they said.
The latest decision follows a report by the Food Safety Commission that the impact of cow zygotes extracted under international sanitary standards on human health is negligible. Japan imports the zygotes of a special kind of Holstein that can produce more milk. It introduced a ban on such imports from affected nations in 1996.