Calf from Alabama 'mad cow' being tested
CNN
March 16, 2006
One of at least two calves born to an Alabama cow with mad cow disease will be tested for evidence of the fatal, brain-wasting disease, the state's agriculture commissioner said Friday.
The cow was at least 10 years old when it was destroyed last week. Its remains have been sent to a government laboratory in Ames, Iowa, for testing, Alabama Agriculture and Industries Commissioner Ron Sparks said.
The location of the other calf, which was born in early 2005, is unknown.
The cow posed no risk to consumers, Sparks has said, because meat from it did not enter the human or animal food supply. The 6-week-old calf is in quarantine.
It is the third confirmed case of mad cow disease in the United States. The first appeared in December 2003 in a Canada-born cow in Washington state. The disease was found again in June in a cow that was born and raised in Texas.
Mad cow disease is properly known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, a degenerative disease of the central nervous system of cattle. There is no cure and no test to determine whether it exists in live animals or in muscle tissue, according to the USDA.
There is evidence that a similar, fatal condition in humans, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, is linked to eating BSE-contaminated products, according to the FDA.
The Alabama cow's age -- determined by examining its teeth after the carcass was exhumed this week for more tests -- is important because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration put safeguards in place nine years ago designed to prevent the disease from spreading.
The safeguards include a ban set up in 1997 on adding ground-up cattle remains to cattle feed, a practice that is believed to have led to an outbreak in the United Kingdom in the 1990s, according to The Associated Press.
Despite the ban, there are other ways bovine remains could get into cattle feed, the AP reported. Restaurant table scraps, which might contain cow bones and tissues, are not banned from the animal food supply.
Officials believe the Alabama cow became ill before the ban went into place. The incubation period for mad cow disease ranges from six to eight years.
Investigators have been unable to determine the cow's birth herd, though its owner said he bought the cow along with other animals at an auction about a year ago, Sparks said at a news conference.
Once symptoms appeared and the cow was unable to walk, it was euthanized by a veterinarian. A tissue sample was sent to the Department of Agriculture for testing, a routine procedure for all "downer" cows as such animals are considered at risk for BSE, according to the AP.
Three tests came back positive for the disease, Sparks said. No more tests are planned.
The cow's head and jawbone have been saved for further study, he said.
Officials haven't identified the farm where the cow was discovered, so that farmers will continue to cooperate with the voluntary program under which they report all downer animals to the state, Sparks said.
The quarantine on the farm has been lifted, officials said.
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