January 13, 2004 Japan Economic Newswire

The report said its survey shows a similar margin of 70% of the farmers questioned want the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban cattle remains from being fed to any kind of livestock as a safety precaution against mad cow disease.

More than half of those polled said the government should require identification tags for all U.S. cattle to allow faster tracking of animals if mad cow disease or another ailment is discovered.

Reuters conducted the straw poll of 660 U.S. farmers at the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual meeting this week in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The federation is the largest U.S. farm group, representing producers of cattle and pigs as well as growers of cotton, corn, wheat and soybeans.

Japan, the largest overseas market for American beef, imposed an import ban on U.S. beef products after the discovery of the country's first case of mad cow disease in Washington State in December.

The U.S. government has been urging Japan and other countries to lift their bans after it was confirmed that the infected dairy cow was imported from Canada.

The Japanese government is awaiting a report from a fact-finding team currently on a tour of the U.S. and Canada while asking for Washington to put in place a rigid system to ensure the safety of beef products.