Government Identifies Another Possible Mad Cow Case
POSTED: 12:57 pm MDT July 27, 2005
UPDATED: 2:09 pm MDT July 27, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Agriculture Department says the government is investigating another possible case of mad cow disease.
USDA Chief Veterinarian Dr. John Clifford said initial tests have indicated the presence of the disease in a 12-year-old cow that died from complications during calving on the farm where it had lived.
There's no word on where the farm was.
Clifford said the cow "poses no threat to the human food supply, because it did not enter the human or animal food chains."
The department is conducting further tests at its lab in Ames, Iowa, and is sending a brain tissue sample to the internationally recognized laboratory in Weybridge, England, the official said.
The animal died in April, but a private veterinarian forgot to send the sample to the USDA until this month, Clifford said. He said that, from all indications, the cow was not imported from Canada.
The first case of mad cow disease in the United States was confirmed in in 2003 and involved a dairy cow imported from Canada. The second U.S. case, in a cow from Texas, was confirmed in June.
Mad cow disease has killed about 150 people worldwide, mostly in Britain.
