The United States records the seventh case of mad cow disease in South Carolina, but transmission is “unlikely”
The United States records the seventh case of mad cow disease in South Carolina, but transmission is “unlikely”
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The United States detected its seventh case of mad cow disease at a slaughterhouse in South Carolina, health officials say.
The five-year-old cow was diagnosed with the disease at the plant after it was deemed “unsuitable” for slaughter.
The US Department of Agriculture said the animal did not enter the country’s beef supply and officials are not concerned about further transmission.
The disease, technically called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, causes lesions in the animals’ brains that give them a sponge-like appearance and cause problems with aggression and movement. It’s always deadly.
Humans who eat meat from contaminated cattle can also contract the disease, which triggers seizures and is fatal in seven to 10 patients. Four people in the US have developed the disease to date, and all have died.
The cow was diagnosed with the disease at a South Carolina slaughterhouse. Officials say no meat from the animal made it into the human supply chain (Pictured: A file image of a cow with mad cow disease)
The case is the seventh in the US (US cases in orange) and the first since 2018
Health officials are on high alert for mad cow disease because it is almost always fatal to humans.
Millions of cattle had to be culled in the UK during the 1980s and 1990s when they developed the disease after eating feed containing ground meat and bones from cattle that had the disease.
The disease has also been detected in France, Germany, Italy and a swath of other European countries, but was not detected in the United States until 2003, when it was detected in a cow imported from Canada.
Mad cow disease is caused by a misfolded protein in the brain, called a prion, which disrupts communication between cells and leads to symptoms.
Animals can acquire this protein by eating the meat of others who have the disease, the classic form of the disease, or it can occur spontaneously when a mutation causes the protein to misfold inside them, the atypical form.
Animals with the atypical form can take years to start showing symptoms.
The cow in South Carolina was diagnosed with the atypical form of the disease.
It was tested after officials deemed the animal “unsuitable” for slaughter, likely because it showed warning signs of the disease.
The animal also carried a radio frequency tag that linked it to a herd in Tennessee.
The US Department of Agriculture, which disclosed the case, said: “This animal never entered slaughter channels and at no time did it pose a risk to the food supply or human health in the United States.”
They did not disclose when the case was detected or if other animals were now being tested as well.
They also did not reveal the fate of the cow, although the animal has likely already been euthanized and the body safely disposed of.
The case marks the seventh detected in the United States and the first to be revealed since 2018.
It is also the sixth case of the atypical form of the disease in the US, with only one case of the classic form detected dating to 2003.
Experts said the United States was unlikely to face restrictions on selling cattle at home or abroad as a result of the diagnosis.
Simon Quilty, an analyst with Global AgriTrends in Colorado, said abc News that the last time a case was detected in 2018 this had no commercial implications.
“So you can only assume the same thing will happen this time,” he said.
The top countries for US beef exports are Japan, South Korea, China, and Mexico.
Asked if China might consider restricting the beef trade given the ongoing trade war between the nations, Quilty said this was unlikely.
“According to the US-China trade agreement, they said that no atypical BSE case could be banned if it occurred,” he added.
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