Washington -- A third case of the brain-wasting disorder in the last two and a half years has been reported in Alabama, the Agriculture department has reported that a cow has been tested positive for mad cow disease. According to USDA officials a test had been conducted on a tissue taken from an old cow, this test had confirmed the presence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy or in lay man terms mad cow disease.
Other test results would follow later this week. An official from the USDA, chief veterinarian John Clifford has said," This animal did not enter the human food or animal feed chain." Mr. Clifford however could not confirm as to exactly how old the cow was or where it was born. The cow was buried on the farm. Meanwhile regulators are looking for any possible offspring as well as the cow’s original herd-mates.
This development will probably prove to be another blow to beef exporters’. The exporters have been trying to pry open foreign markets that were until now closed to their markets. Since the report of the first mad cow disease in 2003, Japan and other major export markets had banned all imports of U.S. beef products, and had reopened its markets late last year only to seal its borders once again.
Prior to this looming crisis regulators had launched a massive program for better screening and furthermore about 650,000 cattle have been tested so far. Incidentally, the discovery of the latest case has come at a time when the regulators were planning to cut back on the screening program; however it is at yet uncertain whether this case will force them to reconsider.
Shane Sklar, a cattleman from Edna has admitted that," It’s always scary when these things happen but I do not expect any knee-jerk reactions from U.S. trading partners."
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