May 4, 2006

 

USDA gives up looking for origin of latest BSE cow

 

 

The US Department of Agriculture has closed its investigation into the latest case of mad cow disease without discovering where the animal was born or further evidence to back up claims the animal was more than 10 years old.

 

The cow, found on an Alabama farm, was confirmed to be positive for mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Mar 13. USDA officials said the cow had only resided there for about a year before its death.

 

Ron DeHaven, administrator of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), said in a statement Tuesday (May 2) that two of the infected animal's offspring were found.

 

USDA "investigated 36 farms and 5 auction houses and conducted DNA testing on herds that may have included relatives of the (infected) animal," DeHaven said. "APHIS and state investigators were unable to find any related animals except for the two most recent calves."

 

USDA maintains that the cow was more than 10 years old--born and possibly infected before the US implemented BSE cattle safety regulations in 1997--because of conclusions reached by examining the teeth of the dead animal.

 

But USDA and Alabama state officials had hoped to find documentation to show exactly where and when the cow was born.

 

Alabama Agriculture and Industries Commissioner Ron Sparks said during the investigation that the infected cow could have been brought in from another state before being sold to its last owner in Alabama.

 

Kenneth Angel, a USDA representative in Alabama, said during a March press conference that finding the cow's origin was viewed as extremely important because that is where the cow was likely infected through the feed it ate.

 

Since 1997, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has prohibited bovine material from being included in cattle feed because BSE is believed to be spread among cattle through feed containing infected cattle parts.

 

The FDA investigated cattle feed producing companies near where the infected cow was found in Alabama, even though it is unknown if the animal was born and raised in Alabama, Sparks said.

 

FDA's investigation, he said, "found that all local feed mills that handle prohibited materials have been and continue to be in compliance with the FDA's feed ban."

 

Stephen Sundlof, director of FDA's Centre for Veterinary Medicine, predicted in March that it would be "nearly impossible to identify any particular feed," especially if USDA could not find where the BSE-infected cow was born.

 

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.

 

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