The US beef industry has been hit by the country’s first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.
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US Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced on 23 December that a suspected case of BSE had been found in a Holstein cow that was slaughtered at a plant in Moses Lake, Washington in December. A sample from the cow was then taken to the UK for testing at the BSE world reference laboratory in Weybridge. On 25 December the laboratory confirmed the US Department of Agriculture’s diagnosis of BSE.
The USDA had launched an investigation aimed at tracing the infected animal’s origins and said that the cow was likely to have been imported from Canada in 2001.
Several countries, including top US beef buyers Japan, Mexico and South Korea, responded by suspending imports of US beef, reported Reuters.
BSE has previously devastated beef markets in Europe and Japan, after outbreaks of the disease resulted in a consumer backlash against the meat. Scientists believe the disease can be passed on to humans through consumption of infected meat, resulting in the incurable brain-wasting disease Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), which has so far claimed over 130 lives.
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By GlobalDataA single case of BSE found in Canada in May led to massive beef trade restrictions against the country, severely impacting Canada’s beef industry.
