news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060313/ap_on_go_ot/mad_cow
AP Alabama Cow Tests Positive for Disease By LIBBY QUAID, AP Food and Farm Writer 42 minutes ago WASHINGTON - A cow in Alabama has tested positive for mad cow disease, the Agriculture Department said Monday, confirming the third US case of the brain-wasting ailment. The cow did not enter the food supply for people or animals, officials said. The animal, unable to walk, was killed by a local veterinarian and buried on the farm.
"We remain very confident in the safety of US beef," said the department's chief veterinarian, John Clifford. The news came as the Bush administration worked to reassure Japan and other foreign customers of American beef. Japan halted US beef shipments in January after finding veal cuts with backbone -- cuts that are eaten in the US but not in Asia. Japan was the top customer of American beef until the first US case of mad cow disease prompted a ban it had only recently lifted. "We would not anticipate that this would impact our ongoing negotiations," Clifford said.
Mad cow disease is the common name for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. The first US case of mad cow disease appeared in December 2003 and involved a Canadian-born cow in Washington state. The disease was found again last June in a cow that was born and raised in Texas. The local vet examined the Alabama cow's teeth and said the animal was older, "quite possibly upwards of 10 years of age," Clifford said. Investigators are working to pinpoint the cow's age, he said. The age of the cow is important because the US put safeguards in place nine years ago to prevent the disease from spreading. The US banned ground-up cattle remains from being added to cattle feed in 1997. Eating contaminated feed is the only way cattle are known to contract the disease. Older animals are more likely to have been exposed to contaminated feed circulating before the 1997 feed ban. In Canada, which enacted a similar feed ban in 1997, the most recent case of mad cow disease was in an animal born after the feed ban, raising questions about enforcement. The Alabama cow had spent less than a year at the farm where it died, Clifford said. Investigators are working to determine where the cow was born and raised and locate its herdmates and offspring, Clifford said. The Agriculture Department has been considering when to scale back its higher level of testing for mad cow disease. After the first case of BSE, testing was increased from about 55 to 1,000 daily. As of Monday, 652,697 of the nation's estimated 95 million head of cattle had been tested. The department hasn't decided how many animals to test once surveillance is scaled back but will follow international guidelines, Clifford said.
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