NYT: Tests Confirm Second Mad Cow Case in U.S. - NYT 6/24/05

[Guest guest]

[some sources claim this cow is from Texas -- hence the reluctance of

Bush's Agriculture Secretary to specify where it is from is

understandable. -- hkdd]

 

New York Times June 24, 2005

 

 

Tests Confirm Second Mad Cow Case in U.S.

 

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 4:57 p.m. ET

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tests have confirmed mad cow disease in what appears

to be the first case in a U.S. born animal, the Agriculture Department

said Friday. Officials would not specify where the case turned up, but

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said there is no evidence the cow was

imported.

 

An internationally recognized laboratory in Weybridge, England,

confirmed the case after U.S. tests produced conflicting results,

Johanns said. The animal had been tested last year and cleared of having

the brain-wasting illness.

 

New tests were ordered two weeks ago. Those results came back positive,

leading officials to seek confirmation from the Weybridge lab. The

department also performed more tests at its lab in Ames, Iowa.

 

The first case of mad cow disease in the United States was confirmed in

December 2003. It turned up in Washington state in a dairy cow imported

from Canada. Like the first case, the new case was in an animal at least

8 years old, meaning it was born before the United States banned cattle

parts in cattle feed, which is how the disease is believed to spread.

 

Human health is not at risk in the new case, Johanns said. The animal

was a ''downer,'' meaning it was unable to walk. Such animals are banned

from the food supply.

 

''I am encouraged that our interlocking safeguards are working exactly

as intended,'' Johanns said at a news conference. ''This animal was

blocked from entering the food supply because of the firewalls we have

in place. Americans have every reason to continue to be confident in the

safety of our beef.''

 

Officials said the brain tissue samples appeared different from the

classical form of mad cow disease seen in Britain, where there was an

outbreak in the 1990s, but they are classifying it as mad cow disease,

anyway.

 

Johanns said his department will start conducting more sensitive tests

as a matter of routine. The department has come under fire from both

consumer groups and cattlemen for not resolving conflicting test results

on this animal last November.

 

The department did initial screening using a ''rapid test,'' which was

positive. A more detailed immunohistochemistry, or IHC test, was

negative. But the department did not conduct a third round, using a test

called the Western blot, until the department's inspector general

ordered it to do so two weeks ago, said USDA officials, including the

inspector general.

 

Now the department will use both IHC and Western blot when rapid tests

indicate the presence of the disease, Johanns said.

 

''By adding the second confirmatory test, we boost that confidence and

bring our testing in line with the evolving worldwide trend,'' he said.

 

U.S. officials escalated testing for the disease after the first U.S.

case. More than 388,000 dead cattle have been screened in the past 18

months, compared with about 2,000 screenings annually before then.

 

Mad cow disease -- officially called bovine spongiform encephalopathy,

or BSE -- occurs when proteins called prions bend into misfolded shapes.

They deposit plaque that kills brain cells and leaves behind spongy holes.

 

A form of the disease in people is variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. It

has been linked to the consumption of contaminated meat. The disease has

killed about 150 people worldwide, mostly in Britain.

 

------

On the Net:

USDA: http://www.usda.gov