According to a report, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry had detected the first case of foot and mouth disease on April 20. This first case was detected at a water buffalo firm in Tsunocho.

The team has expected that at the time of the first case detection, there were already 10 other farms infected by the disease. It is also estimated that the virus had come to Japan from the Asian countries.

This expert team was led by Tomoyuki Tsuda, who is the Chief of the Department of Planning and General Administration of the National Institute of Animal Health. This team had studied livestock of 292 Miyazaki Prefecture farmers. The team has made an assumption of the dates and times of infections of all these cases, though it is unable to find the route of the virus to the farms and livestock.

The team has also prepared a list citing the reasons and initial stages of these infections for which they conducted interviews with the farmers. According to the expert team, the sequence of events and genes of this infection is quite similar to the cases found in South Korea.

The final report of this research would be made in mid- August.