Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), widely referred to as "mad cow disease" is a chronic, slowly progressive, degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system of cattle. The majority of BSE cases have been found in the United Kingdom and recent cases have been identified in European Union countries. BSE has not been found in the United States. Affected cattle die. Currently there is no test to detect the disease in a live animal; veterinary pathologists confirm BSE by examining the brain tissue of dead animals or by detecting the abnormal form of the prion protein. BSE has been linked to a variant form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, no cases of variant CJD have been identified in the United States.
Since 1989, the USDA has prohibited the importation of live hoofed animals from countries where BSE is known to exist in native cattle and products derived from these animals, including bone meal. In 1990, the USDA initiated an active surveillance program to examine the brains of U.S. cattle for BSE. In 1997, the restrictions were extended to include all of the countries in Europe. As of December 2000, the USDA prohibited all imports of rendered animal protein products, regardless of species, from Europe.
Minnesota Board of Animal Health: 651-296-2942 or www.bah.state.mn.us
Minnesota Department of Agriculture: 1-800-967-AGRI
U.S. Department of Agriculture website at www.aphis.usda.gov/oa/bse.