Source:  Dani Friedland, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 7/27/10

Three months after foot-and-mouth disease began spreading, Japan has lifted a shipment ban on pork and beef from Miyazaki prefecture. Officials have ended the state of emergency.

No new cases have been reported in the last three weeks, Bloomberg reported. The outbreak led to the nation’s largest cull in history. In all, 220,034 pigs (or 2.2 percent of the country’s total swine herd) and 68,314 cattle (1.5 percent of the herd) were slaughtered and buried. Several prized stud bulls were included in the cull, according to Agence France Presse.

Miyazaki is the country’s second largest prefecture for hog farming and the third largest for beef farming, according to Bloomberg.

Wagyu beef from Miyazaki prefecture carries a typical wholesale price of between $160 and $320 per kilogram, according to AFP. The Japanese government has paid affected farmers nine billion yen (some $100 million) thus far, and that figure may rise to as much as 20 billion yen (around $229 million).

Japan will ask the World Organization for Animal Health to declare it FMD free, but that requires three months with no reports of new cases. Officials cited by Bloomberg say that could take place no sooner than Oct. 6, as the last case was reported on July 4.

For more stories, go to www.meatingplace.com.