The US department of agriculture says there should be no concern about food safety after the discovery of BSE in a US dairy herd. The disease apparently arose from a one-off mutation picked up during random surveillance at an abattoir in California.
The animal was tested as part of a regular inspection programme that examines tissue from 40,000 slaughtered cattle each year.
Dr John Clifford, the department’s chief veterinary officer, said the investigation was continuing, but added “there should be no concern . . . about the safety of our food supply.”
Despite this, two of South Korea’s largest importers of US beef halted sales. BSE in the food chain has been linked to cases in humans of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). – (Guardian service)