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CONFIDENCE IN U.S. MEAT SUPPLY
On Tuesday, December 23, 2003, Agriculture Secretary Ann
M. Veneman announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has
diagnosed a presumptive positive case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy
(BSE) in an adult Holstein cow in the state of Washington. Tissue samples
sent to the BSE world reference lab in Weybridge, England confirmed USDA's
preliminary diagnosis of BSE.
Widely referred to as 'mad cow disease" BSE attacks the central nervous
system of cattle. The disease was first diagnosed in Great Britain in
1986, and until the present case, no cases have been found in the U.S.
To prevent the entry of BSE into the U.S., importation of live animals
and animal products from countries with known cases of the BSE has been
prohibited since 1989. In Great Britain, the disease is thought to have
been spread by feeding cattle rendered protein products from sheep infected
with scrapie, a similar disease. In response, the Food and Drug Administration
banned the feeding of all ruminant byproducts to ruminants in 1997.
The organism that causes BSE is found only in the spinal cord, brain and
retina. These tissues are removed at harvest and do not enter the food
chain; and in fact, all by-products from the animal in question have been
found and contained. There has been no evidence of the infective organism
being detected in milk or muscle tissue. The World Health Organization,
the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration and other major health organizations have repeatedly
confirmed that milk and milk products do not contain or transmit BSE.
Dairy products are among the most tested and regulated foods in the world
and American dairy products are among the safest in the world.
All cattle are inspected by USDA personnel before being harvested. Any
cattle that show signs of neurological disorders are tested for BSE. BSE
is rarely found in animals less than 30 months of age. The majority of
the beef consumed in the U.S. is from cattle that are younger than 24
months.
The herd from which the affected cow came from is under State quarantine
in Washington. USDA's BSE Response Plan is currently in place. Under this
plan, USDA is very aggressively and quickly tracing and testing all progeny
of the affected cow, her history and origins, and a complete trace on
all feed supplies.
The entire USDA BSE Response Plan along with more details
on the disease can be found at: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/issues/bse/bse.html.
For more information on BSE the following web resources may be useful:
www.cce.cornell.edu/oneida/cce/productionagmp.htm
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oneida County's web site with fact sheets
and links to BSE resources and information.
www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/issues/bse/bse.html
The Animal Plant Health Inspection Service's web site with the latest
updates, developments, and decisions regarding the U.S.'s response to
this BSE case.
www.usda.gov
United States Department of Agriculture
www.fda.gov
United States Food and Drug Administration
If you have food and safety questions, please call the toll-free USDA
Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-PMHotline from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM Monday
through Friday.
Heather Sweeney
Dairy/Livestock Specialist
Cornell Cooperative Extension
121 Second Street
Oriskany, NY 13424
Phone: (315)736-3394 ext. 102
Email: hes7@cornell.edu
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