Japan Says Beef Standards Lax in Canada and U.S.

A Japanese team that returned on Monday from a mission to investigate the first confirmed case of mad cow disease in the United States warned that American and Canadian cows continued to be vulnerable to an outbreak of the illness.

Japan, the world's largest buyer of American beef, banned imports from the United States last month after a cow infected with the disease was found in Washington State. Canadian beef was banned seven months earlier, when an infected cow was found there.