WASHINGTON – A cow in Alabama has tested positive for mad cow disease, the Agriculture Department said Monday, confirming the third U.S. case of the brain-wasting ailment.
The cow did not enter the food supply for people or animals, officials said. The animal, unable to walk, was killed by a local veterinarian and buried on the farm.
“We remain very confident in the safety of U.S. beef,” said the department’s chief veterinarian, John Clifford.
Authorities said the farm was under an informal quarantine but would not say where it was.
“We will not release this information at this time until we complete our investigation, and that could take a few days,” said Alabama agriculture commissioner Ron Sparks.
The cow had spent less than a year there before it died, officials said.
Clifford said the cow was a Santa Gertrudis breed, a red-colored animal that thrives in hotter weather in the southern U.S.
Mad cow disease is the common name for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.
The first U.S. case of mad cow disease appeared in December 2003 and involved a Canadian-born cow in Mabton, Wash. The disease was found again in June 2005 in a cow that was born and raised in Texas.
The local vet examined the Alabama cow’s teeth and said the animal was older, “quite possibly upwards of 10 years of age,” Clifford said. Investigators are working to pinpoint the cow’s age, he said.
Clifford said it can be difficult to tell the age of older cows based on their teeth.
The age of the cow is important because the U.S. put safeguards in place nine years ago to prevent the disease from spreading. The U.S. banned ground-up cattle remains from being added to cattle feed in 1997. Eating contaminated feed is the only way cattle are known to contract the disease.
Older animals are more likely to have been exposed to contaminated feed circulating before the 1997 feed ban.
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