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Associated Press
Update 2: Investigators Will Dig Up Infected Cow
By LIBBY QUAID , 03.15.2006, 05:50 PM
The Alabama cow infected with mad cow disease will be exhumed so investigators can get a better idea of its age, the government said Wednesday.
Investigators are also trying to determine where the cow came from. The infected animal had spent less than a year on the Alabama farm, which has not been identified.
Authorities are also trying to find any herd mates or offspring.
The cow is harder to track because it was not a registered purebred, state officials said Wednesday. Alabama agriculture commissioner Ron Sparks said the animal was a red crossbreed.
The cow's age is important because of safeguards the U.S. created nearly nine years ago to prevent the disease from spreading. A local veterinarian examined the animal's teeth and said it may have been 10 years old or older.
The safeguards keep ground-up cattle remains from being added to cattle feed. The practice was common worldwide until it was identified as the culprit of an outbreak of mad cow disease in the United Kingdom blamed for the deaths of 180,000 cattle and more than 150 people.
The disease doesn't spread like a virus or bacteria. Eating contaminated feed is the only way cattle are believed to get mad cow disease.
If the cow was more than 9 years old, it could have been exposed to contaminated feed circulating before the feed ban took effect.
However, Agriculture Department officials acknowledge it can be difficult to tell the age of older cows from their teeth.
Mad cow disease is medically known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. Eating meat contaminated with BSE is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare and deadly nerve disease.
Associated Press
Update 2: Investigators Will Dig Up Infected Cow
By LIBBY QUAID , 03.15.2006, 05:50 PM
The Alabama cow infected with mad cow disease will be exhumed so investigators can get a better idea of its age, the government said Wednesday.
Investigators are also trying to determine where the cow came from. The infected animal had spent less than a year on the Alabama farm, which has not been identified.
Authorities are also trying to find any herd mates or offspring.
The cow is harder to track because it was not a registered purebred, state officials said Wednesday. Alabama agriculture commissioner Ron Sparks said the animal was a red crossbreed.
The cow's age is important because of safeguards the U.S. created nearly nine years ago to prevent the disease from spreading. A local veterinarian examined the animal's teeth and said it may have been 10 years old or older.
The safeguards keep ground-up cattle remains from being added to cattle feed. The practice was common worldwide until it was identified as the culprit of an outbreak of mad cow disease in the United Kingdom blamed for the deaths of 180,000 cattle and more than 150 people.
The disease doesn't spread like a virus or bacteria. Eating contaminated feed is the only way cattle are believed to get mad cow disease.
If the cow was more than 9 years old, it could have been exposed to contaminated feed circulating before the feed ban took effect.
However, Agriculture Department officials acknowledge it can be difficult to tell the age of older cows from their teeth.
Mad cow disease is medically known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. Eating meat contaminated with BSE is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare and deadly nerve disease.
