US Case of Mad Cow Beef

[crossfield_beef]

I just noticed this on the CBC website.
Details are on the link
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/03/11/us-cow060311.html
The U.S Department of Agriculture is investigating a possible case of mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

The agency received an inconclusive test result on Friday, chief veterinary medical officer John Clifford said in a notice posted on the department's website on Saturday.

Once again-- this does not help any of us. At least I scooped rsomer (or is it farmers_son)

Lots of snow over here today. I am in the thick of calving. Good luck all.

[almoy]

Wonder if they have anymore Canadian tags handy down there!!

[JD4ME]

March 11, 2006, 9:48PM
U.S. Probes Possible Case of Mad Cow


By LIBBY QUAID AP Food and Farm Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Agriculture Department is investigating a possible case of mad cow disease, the agency's chief veterinarian said Saturday.

A routine test indicated the possible presence of mad cow disease, said John Clifford, the USDA official. The agency would not say where the animal was from.

The cow did not enter the human or animal food chain, Clifford said.

The department is conducting more detailed tests at its laboratory in Ames, Iowa, and should have results in four to seven days.

"This inconclusive result does not mean we have found a new case of BSE," Clifford said, giving the abbreviation for the disease's formal name, bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

"Inconclusive results are a normal component of most screening tests, which are designed to be extremely sensitive," he added in a statement.

In humans, eating meat products contaminated with mad cow disease has been linked to more than 150 deaths worldwide from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare and fatal nerve disease.

A majority of the deaths were in Britain, where there was an outbreak of mad cow disease that started in the mid-1980s. There was one case confirmed in the U.S., although the federal Centers for Disease Control believes the person got the disease while in the United Kingdom.

No one is known to have contracted the disease inside the United States.

U.S. government investigators have found two 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.

In response to the first case, the Agriculture Department increased its level of testing for the disease. As of Friday, 644,603 of the nation's estimated 95 million head of cattle had been tested.

The United States has had three cases in which "inconclusive" results turned out to be negative. Two of those times were in 2004 and the third was in 2005.

Tests are done on dead animals; there is no test for the disease in a live cow. The department primarily tests animals that can't walk, have signs of nervous system disorder, are emaciated or injured or that have died. These animals are considered to be at greatest risk of having the disease.

The 2003 case of mad cow disease prompted a ban on American beef by Japan, once the biggest customer of U.S. beef, and many other countries.

Japan finally reopened its market in December but halted U.S. beef shipments in January after finding veal cuts with backbone, which is eaten in the U.S. but considered at risk for mad cow disease in Asian countries.

Clifford said the U.S. has "a system of interlocking safeguards" against mad cow disease that protects people and health. The U.S. has a ban on adding remains of dead cattle to feed for live cattle, because eating contaminated feed is how the disease is believed to spread.

The government also requires the removal of tissues known to carry the disease, such as brains and spinal cords, when animals are slaughtered.

"We remain very confident in the safety of U.S. beef," Clifford said.


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[JD4ME]

Ever notice how this sort of news gets released on the weekend when the medias really not paying all that much attention and the markets are closed for a couple days, likely a good thing but still awfully interesting timing, again.

[cowman]

Hopefully it will be a ho-hum event just like the last Canadian case? The world has moved on and we don't need the silly hysteria over what amounts to nothing? Probably the only ones who will be on the rant will be R-CALF! They'll either try to blame Canada or beat up on the USDA!
Time to go into psycho mode on bird flu instead!

[Willowcreek]

Cow was confirmed positive. A 10 year old Santa Gertrudis cow in Alabama-- that means its another Confederate cow again so the Union is still BSE free- except for the Washington cow---I guess those boys down south there don't have access to a stockpile of CCIA tags like we do....

[cowman]

Good to see you never lost your sense of humor Willowcreek!
Hopefully this thing will blow over real quick and the markets won't beat you guys up too bad. And hopefully the Hong Kong thing is resolved fairly quickly. We really don't need anymore of this garbage...in Canada or the US!
I do have a belief that with our new government up here, Canada and the USA can get some of this stuff resolved and we can get the grievances that caused this crap, fixed. As I've often stated if we could get two old cowboys from each country to sit down over a coffee(or something stronger if that is their choice) they'd probably have it sorted out tommorrow! I am not one who thinks Canada is some sort of lily white idol...I do believe you guys have some valid grievances...and they need to be addressed. Just my opinion.

[cowman]

I agree cowman, the fingerpointing and badmouthing of one another has been non productive in government and on this site.
Time to turn a page and get working shoulder to shoulder, if that happened we would have the strongest lobby force for the beef industry anywhere.

[cowman]

And Emerald, this seems to be a non event so far? Now if R-CALF can just keep their darned mouths shut and not try to shoot themselves in the foot, I think this will blow over?
It must be frustrating to have a so-called cattle organization doing everything possible to try to convince your consumers that the beef isn't safe?

[cowman]

agreed cowman. Doubtful if this one can be blamed on Canada, not too many Santa Gertrudis cattle around here...although the damn neighbour did have a SG bull about twenty years ago !!!