April 3, 2006

 

US unlikely to succeed in finding source of latest BSE infection

 

 

Government investigators looking into the latest case of mad cow disease in the US would probably be unable to find the source of the cow's infection, a Food and Drug Administration official said Thursday (Mar 30).

 

Stephen Sundlof, director of FDA's Centre for Veterinary Medicine, told reporters, "It's going to be nearly impossible to identify any particular feed."

 

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is believed to be spread among cattle through feed containing infected cattle parts. The FDA has prohibited bovine material from being included in cattle feed since 1997.

 

If FDA could find the producer of the tainted feed that infected the cow--found on an Alabama farm earlier this month--it might be able to find how widely the feed was distributed.

 

But US Department of Agriculture officials believe the cow was at least 10 years old when she was euthanised by a local veterinarian on the Alabama farm where she had resided for less than a year.

 

"It was a long time ago," Sundlof said, suggesting the time lapsed makes it complicated in finding out what the cow ate when it was young and the infection occurred.

 

It might help, he said, if the USDA can find out where the infected cow was born, but even then FDA's job of finding an infected feed source is close to impossible.

 

But USDA and Alabama state authorities still do not know if they will be able to find the cow's birth place.

 

The latest infected cow represents the third case of BSE found in the US.

 

The first was announced in December 2003. The second was confirmed in June 2005, but was originally misdiagnosed as negative for the brain wasting disease in November 2004.