Atypical mad cow case大家會怕嗎? - 北美

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cattle-bse-alabama-idUSKBN1A32IY

(Reuters) - An 11-year-old cow in Alabama tested positive for bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture said on Tuesday.

The cow tested positive for the atypical L-type of BSE after exhibiting
clinical signs at an Alabama livestock market, the USDA said in a press
release. Atypical BSE can arise spontaneously in cattle herds, usually in
animals 8 years old or older.

"This animal never entered slaughter channels and at no time presented a risk
to the food supply, or to human health in the United States," the USDA said.
"Following delivery to the livestock market the cow later died at that
location."

The Alabama cow is the fifth detection of BSE in the United States, four of
which were atypical.

"This finding of an atypical case will not change the negligible risk status
of the United States, and should not lead to any trade issues," the USDA
added.

The only classical BSE case was an animal found in 2003 at a Washington farm
that was imported from Canada and born before a 1997 ban on the use of cattle
feed containing brain or spinal tissue, which can result in transmission of
the disease.

China last month resumed imports of U.S. beef for the first time since
banning them following the 2003 scare.

First detected in Britain in the 1980s, classical mad cow ravaged herds in
parts of Europe until the early 2000s and was linked to the brain-wasting
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

Reporting by Michael Hirtzer; editing by Grant McCool

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