This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English AgricultureReport.
Last Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced thefirst case of mad cow disease in the United States. A test seemed toshow bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or B-S-E, in a cow fromWashington state. The next day, a laboratory in Waybridge, England,confirmed the case.
Within hours of the news, Japan, Mexico and South Korea hadbanned imports of American beef. More than thirty nations have nowbanned American been imports. The restrictions affect about ninetypercent of American beef exports worth about three-thousand-milliondollars a year.
American agriculture officials saythat the nation’s supply of beef is safe. They note that only thebrain and nerve matter from the cow can carry B-S-E. They sayinfected parts of the cow were not processed for use as food forpeople.
On Saturday, the top animal doctor for the United StatesAgriculture Department said the infected cow came from Alberta,Canada. Ron DeHaven said the cow was in a group of seventy-fouranimals bought from Canada two years ago.But a Canadian officialnoted that Canada’s records do not match the American ones. He saidthere was no clear evidence that the infected cow came from Canada.
So far, almost five-thousandkilograms of beef have been seized. American officials havetemporarily closed two farms where the infected cow had been keptand where its calf is believed to be.
The situation is harming American beef producers. In May,Canadian officials reported a single case of B-S-E in Alberta. Manynations, including the United States, banned Canadian beef. That bancost Canada one-million dollars a day.
American beef prices are quickly dropping. An American delegationwent to Japan to try to ease fears. Japan has suggested that theUnited States should expand its B-S-E testing program. Japan testsevery cow for the disease.
B-S-E is widely known as mad cow disease. It is caused bydeformed proteins called prions. B-S-E spreads when animals eat foodcontaining processed brains or nervous tissue of infected animals.
A form of B-S-E, Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease, infects people.Reports say about one-hundred-fifty people have died from thedisease, mostly in Britain, since B-S-E was first identified innineteen-eighty-six.
This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by MarioRitter. This is Bob Doughty.