News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is hunting for 14 cattle that might have shared feed with Canada's latest cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.

(CIDRAP News) – After close to 2 years of expanded testing, the US government is estimating that there are between four and seven cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) among the nation's 42 million adult cattle.

"The data shows that the prevalence of BSE in the United States is extraordinarily low," US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Mike Johanns said at a teleconference this morning.

(CIDRAP News) – A 6-year-old dairy cow in British Columbia, Canada, has been confirmed as that country's 5th case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Testing conducted at the National Centre for Foreign Animal Diseases in Winnipeg, Canada, showed the cow had BSE, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced yesterday. No part of the animal has entered the human food or animal feed chain, Canadian authorities said.

(CIDRAP News) – Preliminary testing has pointed to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, in a 6-year-old dairy cow from southern British Columbia, the Canadian government announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Under a schedule laid out yesterday by federal agriculture officials, a nationwide livestock identification system to help in the investigation and control of animal disease outbreaks will be fully operational by 2009.

(CIDRAP News) – Worldwide cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, have declined about 50% per year over the last three years, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – An Alabama cow has tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), Chief Veterinary Officer John Clifford of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – Meat from deer infected with chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been shown to transmit the prion disease to genetically altered mice, according to a report published Jan 26 in Sciencexpress, part of Science magazine.