Experts React To New Mad Cow Discovery
"In the United Kingdom, people ate cows sick with mad cow and got Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is ultimately fatal," says Dean Cliver.
Now a routine test picked up the same brain-wasting disease, last week, in a 10-year-old cow in Alabama.
On Monday, more detailed testing at a government lab in Iowa confirmed it.
The state's agriculture commissioner says there's no danger to the food supply.
"This animal did not make it into the food supply. We do have surveillance programs in place to keep animals out of the food supply. We do have programs in place to keep the infected materials out of the food supply," says Ron Sparks, commissioner with the Alabama Department of Agriculture.
Commissioner Sparks stressed the other cows in the same herd are not in danger of contracting mad cow disease.
Dean Cliver, a professor of Food Safety at UC Davis says there is no such thing as a threat-free food supply.
"Arguably, we will get an animal with mad cow in the food supply. This cow was old. I don't think she got it from something she ate," Cliver says.
He says he's a beefeater himself and this case in Alabama is not going to change his habits. He feels America's beef supply is safe.
The results will be released later this week.
