THE United States beef trade is on tenterhooks, awaiting the response from global meat importers to the confirmation of a case of mad cow disease in a cow from Tennessee.
The US Department of Agriculture confirmed an atypical case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or BSE, a neurologic disease of cattle, in an approximately five-year-old beef animal at a slaughter plant in South Carolina.
It said the animal never entered slaughter channels and at no time presented a risk to the food supply or to human health in the US.
It also said given the US's negligible risk status for BSE, it did not expect any trade impacts as a result of this finding.
US beef industry representatives and veterinarians have been quick to label it an isolated incident and reiterate the US has a robust system of safeguards designed to protect human and animal health against BSE.
Those safeguards were successful and prevented entry into the public and animal food supply systems, they said.
This is the seventh case of BSE discovered in the US.
The first case, a cow imported from Canada in 2003 was a case of classical BSE while the other six domestic cows that tested positive have been atypical, according to the USDA.
The 2003 case saw most countries ban or restrict imports of US beef and cattle products. The event had severe negative impacts on the US industry and is often referred to as having opened enormous gates for Australian beef.
However, atypical cases do not impact official BSE risk status with the World Organization for Animal Health, which recognises the US as negligible risk for BSE.
Atypical cases of the disease are believed to occur spontaneously in all cattle populations at a very low rate, the USDA said.
ALSO IN BEEF: