Troll
03-13-2006, 5:26pm
Alabama cow tests positive for mad cow disease
Third U.S. case could cripple the beef industry
WASHINGTON - A cow in Alabama has tested positive for mad cow disease, the Agriculture Department confirmed Monday, the third case in the U.S.
The animal was a beef cow but hadn’t entered the food supply for people or animals, said the department’s chief veterinarian, John Clifford.
A routine test last week had indicated the presence of the disease. Results were confirmed by more detailed testing at a government laboratory in Ames, Iowa, Clifford said.
U.S. investigators have found two previous cases of mad cow disease. The first was in December 2003 in a Canadian-born cow in Washington state. The second was last June in a cow that was born and raised in Texas.
The cow spent the past year at an Alabama farm, he said. The department is investigating where the animal was born and raised.
The animal appears to have been at least 10 years old, Clifford said.
Analysts said the animal’s age will be a key factor in determining consumer and trader reaction.
If the cow were born after 1997, it would mean the animal became infected after a feed ban that was put in place to prevent the disease. If it was born before 1997, the cattle industry could argue the feed ban continues to work in preventing the disease.
In the two previous U.S. mad cow cases, the infected animals were born before 1997.
“If it was born after the feed ban in the United States it is a bigger problem, because it would be harder to say our system is working well,” Jim Robb, a Livestock Meat Information Center economist, said on Saturday after the preliminary results were announced.
Countries worldwide banned U.S. beef after the country’s first mad cow case, but many of those bans have been lifted.
Japan, once the top overseas buyer of U.S. beef, briefly lifted its ban, but it reinstated it in January after receiving a shipment of U.S. veal that contained some banned parts.
This third mad cow case could make it difficult for negotiators to convince Japan to resume purchases of U.S. beef.
First discovered in Great Britain in 1986, mad cow disease destroys the brain in cattle.
A similar, fatal disease can affect people who eat meat from infected cattle, according to scientists. More than 140 people, mainly in Britain and Europe, have died from the disease.
Different types of tests indicated the presence of mad cow disease in the Alabama cow. Two versions of the initial “rapid” screening test suggested the cow had the disease, and a more detailed Western blot confirmed that finding. The department is still doing a third type of test, immunohistochemistry, or IHC, and will release those results later in the week.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11809760/
Third U.S. case could cripple the beef industry
WASHINGTON - A cow in Alabama has tested positive for mad cow disease, the Agriculture Department confirmed Monday, the third case in the U.S.
The animal was a beef cow but hadn’t entered the food supply for people or animals, said the department’s chief veterinarian, John Clifford.
A routine test last week had indicated the presence of the disease. Results were confirmed by more detailed testing at a government laboratory in Ames, Iowa, Clifford said.
U.S. investigators have found two previous cases of mad cow disease. The first was in December 2003 in a Canadian-born cow in Washington state. The second was last June in a cow that was born and raised in Texas.
The cow spent the past year at an Alabama farm, he said. The department is investigating where the animal was born and raised.
The animal appears to have been at least 10 years old, Clifford said.
Analysts said the animal’s age will be a key factor in determining consumer and trader reaction.
If the cow were born after 1997, it would mean the animal became infected after a feed ban that was put in place to prevent the disease. If it was born before 1997, the cattle industry could argue the feed ban continues to work in preventing the disease.
In the two previous U.S. mad cow cases, the infected animals were born before 1997.
“If it was born after the feed ban in the United States it is a bigger problem, because it would be harder to say our system is working well,” Jim Robb, a Livestock Meat Information Center economist, said on Saturday after the preliminary results were announced.
Countries worldwide banned U.S. beef after the country’s first mad cow case, but many of those bans have been lifted.
Japan, once the top overseas buyer of U.S. beef, briefly lifted its ban, but it reinstated it in January after receiving a shipment of U.S. veal that contained some banned parts.
This third mad cow case could make it difficult for negotiators to convince Japan to resume purchases of U.S. beef.
First discovered in Great Britain in 1986, mad cow disease destroys the brain in cattle.
A similar, fatal disease can affect people who eat meat from infected cattle, according to scientists. More than 140 people, mainly in Britain and Europe, have died from the disease.
Different types of tests indicated the presence of mad cow disease in the Alabama cow. Two versions of the initial “rapid” screening test suggested the cow had the disease, and a more detailed Western blot confirmed that finding. The department is still doing a third type of test, immunohistochemistry, or IHC, and will release those results later in the week.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11809760/