A 14-year-old female cow raised for beef in Japan's southern Nagasaki prefecture has been confirmed to have contracted the mad cow disease, a panel of the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said Friday.

This is the first mad cow case in Japan with a cow raised for food. Former 23 cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) have all be found with diary cows aged 1 to 9 ages, Kyodo News quoted ministry officials as saying.

The cow, of domestic Japanese breed, was raised in a farmhouse in Nagasaki and had given birth to ten cows before it was sent to a meat processing plant.

The cow was suspected to have infected the disease on Monday. Its sample was later sent for re-examination and the result was positive.

On Wednesday, Japan reported its 23rd mad cow case, as a 68- month-old diary cow on a farm in northern Hokkaido was confirmed to have contracted the brain-wasting disease.

Japan discovered its first mad cow case in September 2001. The government later started introducing measures to screen every cow slaughtered for consumption.

Source: Xinhua