Calves of infected cow quarantined
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Cows feed at a Mabton, Washington, dairy farm, which has been quarantined after a cow from the facility was found to be infected with mad cow disease.
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The impact on the beef industry is unclear.
U.S. officials say the food supply is safe from the threat of mad cow disease.
CNN's Soledad O'Brien talks to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman.
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| U.S. BEEF IMPORT SUSPENSIONS |
• Japan
• South Korea
• Hong Kong
• Australia
• Taiwan
• Singapore
• Malaysia
• Russia
• Mexico
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| THE HUMAN LINK |
• Mad cow disease was first reported in the United Kingdom in 1986, peaking in 1993 with almost 1,000 new cases per week.
• In 1996, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) was detected in humans and linked to the mad cow epidemic. Eating contaminated meat and cattle products is presumed to be the cause.
• Both are fatal brain diseases with unusually long incubation periods, often lasting years.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Friday that it hasn't determined the origin of the dairy cow infected with mad cow disease but that it has located two of her calves and quarantined them.
Dr. Ron DeHaven, the department's chief veterinary officer, said one calf is in the herd at the same dairy facility in Mabton, Washington, where the infected cow was found. A bull calf was sold to another facility, where it is being held in a group of 400 calves.
DeHaven said it is unlikely that the disease might be passed from the infected cow to her calves. The brain-wasting mad cow disease is usually transmitted through contaminated feed and has an incubation period of four to five years.
Responding to questions, DeHaven said it was premature to say whether the ill animal came from Canada.
In May, a single case of mad cow disease was found in Canada. Although no other cases were found, the United States banned the import of Canadian beef for several months.
DeHaven said records on cattle go immediately to a nearby dairy facility or a regional market. But he described the trail as complicated beyond those destinations.
The cow may have been bought from a livestock market in the area or may have come from a nearby dairy cattle finishing farm.
Under U.S. Department of Agriculture policies, a "downer" animal -- one that can't walk or is having trouble walking -- is tested for disease but can be slaughtered before test results return.
Terry Stokes of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association said his group will recommend that the government prohibit such animals from going to slaughter until testing is finished.
In a teleconference call with reporters, Stokes said the testing of all cows more than 30 months old would affect 6 million cows a year at a cost of $30 per animal.
DeHaven said he hoped to find where the cow came from within a few days but admitted it might take weeks or months.
DeHaven said the infected tissues from the cow never entered the food chain, but he said the recall of meat from the cow is continuing.
Federal officials said no meat from the infected cow had been recovered 48 hours into the recall. Inspection service officials said the meat has been traced to processing plants and their customers notified.
News of the mad cow case has not stopped President Bush from eating beef, the White House said Friday.
"He has eaten beef in the last couple of days," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, in an apparent effort to calm health and market concerns about the disease.
The infected cow was one of 20 slaughtered December 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co. in Moses Lake, Washington, and meat from those carcasses was shipped to other processing plants on December 11, according to Kenneth Peterson of the Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service.
Mark Klein of the Willamette Valley Meat Co. in Portland, Oregon, said none of the meat they received reached the retail market. Klein said the company has recalled most of it, which will be destroyed under the supervision of agriculture inspectors.
DeHaven said his department is developing systems to allow the agency to track cows from birth to slaughter, including a microchip that would be imbedded in the animal.
A laboratory in Waybridge, England, confirmed the Washington state cow had bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.
