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Canada's BSE plague may be U.S.-bred
OTTAWA, Apr 13, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- An investigation by a Canadian news organization has found U.S. scientists improperly analyzed two suspected cases of mad cow disease.
The findings are important because they strongly suggest the disease, which has devastated Canada's beef industry, may actually have originated in the United States and its existence missed.
The cases involved two obviously sick animals brought to a New York slaughterhouse in 1997, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Wednesday.
Dr. Masuo Doi, the U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian in charge of investigating one of the 1997 cases, says he fears the right tests were not done and his own department did not properly investigate whether the cows had bovine spongiform encephalopathy, more commonly known as mad cow disease.
In one case, analysts did not test the part of the cow's brain most likely to show signs of BSE.
In a second case, Doi was unable to obtain documentary evidence the animal was clear of BSE. A few days ago the CBC obtained the long-sought USDA documents.
However, those documents simply confirm what one USDA scientist who participated in the tests on the second cow said: They were of "questionable validity."
OTTAWA, Apr 13, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- An investigation by a Canadian news organization has found U.S. scientists improperly analyzed two suspected cases of mad cow disease.
The findings are important because they strongly suggest the disease, which has devastated Canada's beef industry, may actually have originated in the United States and its existence missed.
The cases involved two obviously sick animals brought to a New York slaughterhouse in 1997, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Wednesday.
Dr. Masuo Doi, the U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian in charge of investigating one of the 1997 cases, says he fears the right tests were not done and his own department did not properly investigate whether the cows had bovine spongiform encephalopathy, more commonly known as mad cow disease.
In one case, analysts did not test the part of the cow's brain most likely to show signs of BSE.
In a second case, Doi was unable to obtain documentary evidence the animal was clear of BSE. A few days ago the CBC obtained the long-sought USDA documents.
However, those documents simply confirm what one USDA scientist who participated in the tests on the second cow said: They were of "questionable validity."