The United States Agriculture Department confirmed Monday a new
case of mad cow disease, which is the third such of its kind
reported in the country.
A routine test last week suggested a possible case, and further
tests of different types confirmed a positive result for bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), said John Clifford, the
agriculture department's chief veterinary officer.
He meanwhile stressed that the infected animal had not entered
the human food chain.
The new case was found in a dead beef cow. Clifford said the
cow, which appears to have been at least 10 years old, spent the
past year at a farm in Alabama. The authorities are investigating
where the cow was born and raised.
"I want to emphasize that human and animal health in the United
States are protected by a system of interlocking safeguards, and
that we remain very confident in the safety of US beef," Clifford
said.
"This animal did not enter the human food or animal feed
chains."
The United States reported its first case of BSE, or mad cow
disease, in December 2003 in a Canadian-born cow in Washington
state. The second case was confirmed in last June in a cow born and
raised in Texas.
People who eat BSE-infected beef can develop the human version
of the brain-wasting disease, which is called variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. There is currently no cure for the
deadly disease.
(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2006)
