海角大神

There appears to be no risk to humans from the dairy cow discovered in California this week to have 鈥渕ad cow鈥� disease. That鈥檚 according to the US Department of Agriculture and the beef industry.

鈥淚t is important to reiterate that this animal was never presented for slaughter for human consumption, did not enter food supply channels, and at no time presented any risk to human health,鈥� the USDA said in a statement this week.

But the case involving a 10 year-old Holstein聽raises questions about how such cattle themselves are fed, which critics say could be part of a dangerous cycle.

搁贰颁翱惭惭贰狈顿贰顿:听Six major food recalls

Mad cow, known scientifically as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is believed to be carried by animal feed made from cattle brains or spinal cord. Such feed is now banned in the US and other countries, but cases of BSE have continued to appear around the world.

The World Health Organization聽has called for the exclusion of the riskiest tissues (eyes and intestines as well as brains and spinal cord) from all animal feed to protect against the spread of mad cow disease.

Stanley Prusiner, who received the 1997 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering the protein associated with BSE has said the US should ban poultry waste in cattle feed as well.

鈥淯nfortunately, the United States聽still allows the feeding of some of these potentially risky tissues to people, pigs, pets, poultry, and聽fish,鈥� warns Michael Greger, director of public health and animal agriculture at The Humane Society of the United States.

鈥淐attle remains are still fed to chickens, for example, and the poultry litter (floor wastes that include the feces and spilled feed) is fed back to cows,鈥� he writes on his Huffington Post blog. 鈥淚n this way, prions 鈥� the infectious proteins that cause mad cow disease 鈥� may continue to be cycled back into cattle feed and complete the cow 鈥榗annibalism鈥� circuit blamed for the spread of the disease.鈥�

Part of the problem, according to critics, is that only a tiny fraction of slaughtered cows (40,000 out of 35 million a year) are tested for BSE.

In this week鈥檚 instance, the cow (which was to be rendered into products other than meat for human consumption) had been unable to stand 鈥� a 鈥渄owner鈥� cow. This raised suspicions, so the cow was tested for BSE. This showed that the current inspection system works, say beef industry supporters.

According to the USDA, the infected animal discovered this week had 鈥渁typical BSE,鈥� which means it most likely did not get the disease from eating infected cattle feed. Still, the USDA is tracking feed sources as a possible cause.

This instance of BSE in US cattle has caused some international ripples.

Indonesia suspended its imports of US beef Thursday, two major South Korean retailers pulled US beef from their stores this week, and South Korea's agriculture ministry has stepped up inspections of US beef and requested detailed information on the case. Taiwan鈥檚 Department of Health is seeking permission from US authorities to visit slaughterhouses in the US, Taiwanese officials said Saturday.

"We will lift the ban as soon as the US can assure us its dairy cows are free of mad cow disease," Indonesia's Vice Agriculture Minister Rusman Heriawan told reporters.

"It could be one month or one year," he said. "It depends on how long it takes to resolve this case."

BSE is fatal to cows, and eating tainted meat has been linked to a similar disease in humans known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease聽(vCJD).

Prior to this week, there were three confirmed cases of BSE in聽cows聽in the US 鈥� in a Canadian-born聽cow聽in 2003 in聽Washington State, in 2005 in聽Texas, and in 2006 in Alabama.

搁贰颁翱惭惭贰狈顿贰顿:听Six major food recalls