“The first U.S. case of mad cow disease in six years has been found in a dairy cow in centralCalifornia, before it entered the human food chain and posed any threat to consumers, officials said.
The cow was identified as part of routine testing for the brain-wasting disease, known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, John Clifford, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief veterinarian, told reporters today at a briefing in Washington.
The animal arrived April 18 at a Baker Commodities Inc. facility in Hanford, California, where dead livestock are held before going to a rendering plant, Dennis Luckey, executive vice president of operations at Los Angeles-based Baker, said in a phone interview.
The carcass “was never presented for slaughter for human consumption, so at no time presented a risk to the food supply or human health,” Clifford said in a statement. Mad cow disease cannot be transmitted through milk from dairy animals, he said. “USDA remains confident in the health of the national herd and the safety of beef and dairy products.”
Cattle futures tumbled the most in 11 months in Chicago, and feeder-cattle prices fell by the exchange limit. The world’s largest beef producer, Brazil’s JBS SA (JBSS3), fell by as much as 5.2 percent before closing 0.3 percent lower in Sao Paulo. Tyson Foods Inc., the second-biggest U.S. beef processor, pared earlier gains to close 1.5 percent higher in New York.”
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