BSE confirmed in California
The US livestock industry is on alert after a diagnosis of ovine spongiform encephalopathy disease (BSE) in California on 23 April.
US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said of the BSE case: “The beef and dairy in the American food supply is safe and USDA remains confident in the health of US cattle. The systems and safeguards in place to protect animal and human health worked as planned to identify this case quickly, and will ensure that it presents no risk to the food supply or to human health. USDA has no reason to believe that any other US animals are currently affected, but we will remain vigilant and committed to the safeguards in place.”
John Clifford, the USDA’s chief veterinary officer, has said that the USDA has notified the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) as well as its trading partners, but the finding should not affect US beef exports.
US Meat Export Federation spokesman Joe Schuele said they were told that US agricultural attaches overseas would be reaching out to their counterparts and local industry officials to explain the facts about BSE and the safeguards put in place in the US.
“They would be engaged in outreach with our trading partners and their counterparts in foreign markets. There is no scientific basis for altering our level of market access,” he said, adding that the USMEF has ‘people on the ground' in many of the major U.S. beef importing nations and they will be deployed to “communicate with the trade”' in those markets.
