TOKYO, April 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Two cows in northeast Japan's Miyagi Prefecture have been tentatively tested positive for mad cow disease earlier this month, Kyodo News reported Tuesday.

    The two animals are a black Japanese cow born in 1987 and a holstein born in 1995, Kyodo said.

    The Miyagi prefectural government will send the samples to the National Institute of Infectious Disease in Tokyo to confirm the diagnosis.

    If the diagnosis is confirmed, the two animals would be Japan's 18th and 19th cases of the disease, which is formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Enditem