The United States Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is tightening restrictions on meat imports from Japan. Previously, Japanese livestock and some meat products were banned out of concern for foot-and-mouth disease. The new restrictions may ban all cooked beef and sheep products from Japan.

The tightened restrictions were implemented after Japan reported a case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Mad cow disease is linked to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. This fatal disease attacks human brain tissue.

Mad cow disease can spread via infected animal feed. As of September 2001, no cases of mad cow disease have been reported in the United States.