Japan has banned imports of pork and pork products from France, Belgium and Northern Ireland following suspected outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease there, farm ministry officials said Tuesday.
The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry ceased issuing quarantine certifications for pork and processed pork products such as sausage, bacon and ham from Northern Ireland on Friday and France and Belgium on Sunday.
The ministry on Monday banned imports of Danish pork, which accounts for about 30 percent of total pork imports, but then lifted it Tuesday after receiving reports from Denmark that pigs there had tested negative for the disease.
Since the disease is highly contagious, the ministry took precautionary measures by banning the imports prior to receiving confirmation that the animals were infected, the officials said.
Japan has banned imports of pork from Britain since August following an outbreak of swine flu. Outbreaks of foot-and-mouth have been reported in Britain in the past few weeks, leading to fears that it will spread across Europe.
The number of confirmed infected sites in Britain, where 67,000 animals have already been slaughtered in a desperate bid to stamp out the disease, rose from 52 to 69 on Sunday.
Japan imported 650,000 tons of pork in 2000, of which 274,000 tons came from the European Union.