Mad cow disease

British lab offers first independent confirmation

WASHINGTON - A British lab provided initial independent confirmation Thursday that the United States has its first case of mad cow disease, U.S. agriculture officials said. Federal investigators labored to trace the path the infected animal took from birth to slaughter.

Scientists at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, England, told the Agriculture Department they concur with the reading of tests on the stricken Holstein that led U.S. officials to conclude the animal had the brain-wasting disease, U.S. officials said.

"We are considering this confirmation," said USDA spokeswoman Alisa Harrison, adding that the English lab will conduct its own test using another sample from the cow's brain. Final test results on the cow from Washington state were expected by the end of the week, she said.

Professor Steven Edwards, chief of the British lab, said those results have been given to USDA. But Edwards refused to disclose whether the tests show that the animal had mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

Meanwhile, Harrison said, investigators were working through the holiday to prevent a potential outbreak of the deadly disease and to calm public fears about the food supply. Government officials have said there is no threat to the food supply because the cow's brain and spine - nerve tissue where scientists say the disease is found - were removed before it was sent for processing.

Humans can contract a fatal variant of mad cow disease by eating infected beef products, but experts say muscle cuts of beef - including steaks and roasts - are safe. Also hamburger ground from labeled cuts, such as chuck or round, poses little health risk, experts say.

The government is trying to find the herd the cow was raised with, since the cow likely was sickened several years ago from eating feed made partly from an infected cow. The incubation period in cattle is four to five years, said Dr. Stephen Sundlof of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Authorities also want to know where the animals were transported and have narrowed their search to two unidentified livestock markets in Washington state, where the sick cow could have been purchased.

Government sources told the Associated Press the cow lived since 2001 at the Sunny Dene Ranch in Mabton, Wash., a town 40 miles south of Yakima. Officials have said a dairy farm near Mabton is under quarantine and its herd would be slaughtered if the mad cow diagnosis was confirmed.

Authorities also were scrambling to find where the meat cut from the animal was sent. The Agriculture Department already has issued a recall for 10,410 pounds of beef slaughtered Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co. in Moses Lake, Wash.

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said the recall was an extra precaution.

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