TOKYO, June 2 (Xinhuanet) -- A nine-year-old Holstein cow in Hokkaido, north Japan, was diagnosed with the 19th case of mad cow disease in Japan, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said Thursday.

    The cow was born in the spring of 1996, which was around the same time as many other cows infected with the disease called bovine spongiform encephalopathy were born.

    As the cow was born before feeding cows with meat-and-bone mealwas banned in 2001 due to fear of infection by the disease, the ministry said that latest case did not change its current anti-BSE measures.

    The nine-year-old cow tested positive in two screenings at a slaughterhouse in Hokkaido, Hokkaido University and the Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine.

    At a meeting Thursday, members of the ministry's expert panel on mad cow disease concluded the cow was infected, the ministry said. Enditem