Mad cow disease stopped with single California bovine
A case of a single cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) can be pretty scary when it hits the evening news. But according to Sarah Klein, food safety attorney at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), there is no reason to believe the beef or milk supply is unsafe. The infection was recently reported by USDA.
“As part of our targeted surveillance system, the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed the nation’s fourth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in a dairy cow from central California,” says USDA Chief Veterinary Officer John Clifford. “The carcass of the animal is being held under State authority at a rendering facility in California and will be destroyed. It was never presented for slaughter for human consumption, so at no time presented a risk to the food supply or human health. Additionally, milk does not transmit BSE,” adds Clifford.