U.S. Cow Found Infected with Mad Cow Disease

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has been confirmed in a U.S. cow by the BSE world reference laboratory in Weybridge (UK).

At the time of a preliminary diagnosis several days earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA, Washington, DC, USA) issued a recall of the meat products from the cow while stating there is an extremely low likelihood that it contains the infectious agent that causes BSE, since all of the central nervous system related tissue, brain, spinal cord, and dital ileum were removed at the slaughter facility and these are the tissues most likely to contain the BSE agent. At least 80% of the meat products were distributed to stores in the states of Oregon and Washington.

The herd the affected animal came from is under quarantine and any cattle that die on the same farm will be tested for BSE. The age of the affected animal is significant, since it appears she would have been born before feed bans were implemented in North America in August 1997. The USDA is continuing to trace the other 73 head of cattle that came in the same shipment, another shipment of eight cows from the same herd in Canada, and the three calves of the affected cow. A case of BSE was reported in Canada in May 2003.

In the meantime, more than 30 countries have banned imports of U.S. beef. Also, the USDA has announced new regulations designed to increase the safety of the nation's food supply. These include a ban on using cows that have an injury or illness ("downer cows”) for food. The human counterpart of BSE is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), both are brain-wasting diseases caused by misfolded proteins called prions.




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