BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) is a progressive neurological disease in cattle, commonly known as mad cow disease. Although the first cases of sick animals were reported in the UK in 1986, the alarm went off in 1996, when British scientists announced the first human case caused by consuming food from infected cows.
Over the years, this disease does not go away, but its occurrence is minimal. However, this week has been worrying case of “outliers”. mad cow disease detected in a slaughterhouse in South Carolina, as announced last Friday by the US Department of Agriculture.
The animal “has never entered the slaughter chain and does not pose a risk to the food chain or human health in the United States at any time,” the department said in a statement, without specifying the date of its discovery.
The United States has a “negligible risk status” for bovine spongiform encephalopathy. “We do not expect any impact on trade from this discovery,” the statement added.
This is the seventh case of ESB detected in the United States in 20 years. All but one were atypical, i.e. related to animal aging and presents no risk transmission to humans.
In humans, this disease that is transmitted through the consumption of meat or offal can cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a deadly degenerative syndrome.
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