An agriculture ministry study team has concluded that a delay in detecting foot-and-mouth disease in the early stages of its outbreak led to the spread of the virus in Miyazaki Prefecture.

According to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, an epidemiological research team led by Tomoyuki Tsuda, head of the Department of Planning and General Administration of the National Institute of Animal Health, found that animals had been infected with foot-and-mouth in a few dozen cases from one to two weeks before the disease's official confirmation.

Foot-and-mouth possibly spread while livestock farmers were unaware of the symptoms of the disease, the research team said Friday.

The research team also found that employees of several farms in Tsunocho and Kawaminamicho in the prefecture, where animals were infected with the disease, had visited each other, while a feedstuff delivery service stopped by many farms in different municipalities in the area. Kawaminamicho neighbors Tsunocho, where the first infection case was detected.

Assuming those transfers of cars and people may have contributed to the spread of the virus, the team plans to further investigate the infection route and whether proper disinfection measures were taken.

-The Yomiuri Shimbun/Asia News Network