Mad Cow Lawyer & Attorney : Marler Clark : Mad Cow Blog

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After a four-month pause to re-examine Canada's safeguards against mad cow disease, the United States may open the door to imports of older cattle and beef from its northern neighbor, U.S. and Canadian officials said on Tuesday.

A U.S. Agriculture Department spokesman confirmed the White House budget office was reviewing a proposed rule to allow imports of cattle over 30 months of age and beef from Canada. If approved by the White House, it would be open for public comment, one of the last steps before taking effect.

Canada said the White House review "indicates that normalizing trade remains a priority and a shared objective of our two governments." Canada is the U.S.' largest trading partner.

Currently, Canadian ranchers can send cattle under 30 months of age to the U.S. for slaughter and imports are allowed of beef from the younger cattle.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Patients with hemophilia and other blood-clotting disorders face an uncertain though probably very low risk of contracting the human form of mad cow disease from medicines made using donated plasma, health officials said Monday.

There are no known cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, as the human form of the disease is known, in patients who have received human plasma derivatives, the Food and Drug Administration said. But there have been three cases, all in the United Kingdom, of people developing the disease after they had received red blood cells from infected donors.

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PRAGUE, Czech Republic: A new case of mad cow disease has been reported in the Czech Republic, bringing the country's total to 25, an official said Monday.

A 6-year-old cow from a farm in Semily, 100 kilometer (62 miles) northeast of Prague, tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, said Josef Duben, a spokesman for the state veterinary authority.

The Czech Republic's first case of BSE was reported in June 2001. Over one million cows have been tested in the country for the disease since early 2001.

From http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/27/europe/EU_GEN_Czech_Mad_Cow.php

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Spain hopes to eliminate mad cow disease from the country by 2010, the country's top veterinary officer announced last Friday.

With 668 cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, known popularly as Mad Cow Disease, reported in the country since 2000, Spain is currently ranked No. 4 in terms of BSE "prevalence" in Europe, said Juan Jose Badiola, president of the College of Veterinarians.

The vet added that although since 2003 the number of cases had been dropping, with only 55 reported so far this year that he wants it to be "totally eradicated in four or five years."

A third of incidences of BSE in Spain occur in the rainy lush pastures of Galicia, in the northwest.

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REGINA — For the first time since mad cow disease was found in Canada, cattle from the United States will be shown this week at the country's largest agricultural marketplace.

Two U.S. producers are bringing animals across the border for the Canadian Western Agribition in Regina.

Two exhibitors out of more than 400 may not sound like much, said Agribition general manager Leon Brinn, but it's still significant.

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A Dutch teenager had died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a human variant of mad cow disease, the local Expatica news service reported on Thursday.

The 16-year-old schoolboy was admitted to hospital in July and died at the end of October, the report said.

But the Health Ministry refused to confirm the report due to its agreements with the victim's family, the report added.

It remains unknown how the boy contracted the disease.

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Japan's Agriculture Ministry said Monday it confirmed the country's 30th case of mad cow disease.

Tests on the 5-year-old dairy cow performed at the National Institute of Animal Health confirmed that the cow, which died at a ranch on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, was infected with the fatal illness.

The animal will be destroyed and incinerated so its parts will not be circulated for consumption or used as feed, the ministry said.

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A MAD cow scare cleared tons of beef from the shelves of two supermarket chains last night.

Asda and the Co-op acted after a slaughtered cow was passed fit without being tested for BSE - the disease that crippled the British beef industry in the 1990s. Customers who bought steak, mince and joints from more than 2,000 stores in the UK in the last fortnight were warned not to eat the meat and to return it.

The recall was ordered after meat from an untested cow over 54 months old was sold to the supermarkets, breaking safety rules that demand screening for all animals over 30 months.

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