On Feb. 9, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced the completion of the field investigation of the first known case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy disease in the U.S.
In December, the department had begun a search to find additional animals from the diseased cow’s original herd. In all, complete herd inventories were performed on more than 75,000 animals and on 51 premises in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Although 255 cows were identified as coming from the Alberta herd, none tested positively for the disease.
"We feel confident that the remaining animals represent very little risk," the USDA stated in its report. "Even in countries like the United Kingdom where the prevalence of BSE has been very high, it is very uncommon to find more than one or maybe two positive animals within a herd."
