The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed the country’s fourth case of mad cow disease in a dairy cow in California on Tuesday.
According to a statement released by USDA Chief Veterinary Officer John Clifford, the cow had not entered the food supply and poses no risk to human health. Clifford said the animal’s carcass is being held at a rendering facility and will be destroyed.
Clifford did not say when the disease was discovered or where the cow was raised.
Samples of the cow tested positive for atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease), a very rare form of the disease that is usually not associated with animals consuming infected feed.
The Agriculture Department is sharing its lab results with international animal health officials in Canada and England, Clifford said.
BSE is a fatal neurological disease among cattle, “causing them to display nervousness or aggression, abnormal posture, difficulty in coordination and rising, decreased milk production, or loss of body weight,” the USDA’s statement said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is strong evidence of a causal relationship between BSE and varient Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) in humans. VCJD is a rare, and typically fatal, degenerative brain disorder that is characterized by prominent psychiatric symptoms and neurological abnormalities such as ataxia and dementia.
There have only been a few cases of vCJD confirmed in people living in the U.S., but those were linked to meat products in the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia, according to the CDC.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/0...#ixzz1t17cGjZO
I wonder if Debbie Washerwoman Schultz has been tested?
Originally Posted by Retread
