US Reports Negative Result in Mad Cow Test
Date: 02-Jul-04
Country: USA
Author: Richard Cowan
The additional tests were ordered after an inconclusive test result was found last Friday in an animal sent for slaughter.
"That particular result is negative for BSE on confirmatory testing," John Clifford, the department's chief veterinarian, told reporters. BSE stands for the formal name of mad cow disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
Clifford noted that the department was still awaiting final tests on tissue from another animal that produced an "inconclusive" result on Tuesday.
The department has cautioned that its new rapid tests to detect the brain-wasting disease are likely to produce false positives.
Meanwhile, Japanese government experts concluded their third and final day of meetings with U.S. government and industry officials in Colorado to discuss beef trade and animal health. Tokyo suspended all beef imports from the United States after the Dec. 23 discovery of the first American case of mad cow disease.
Peter Fernandez, associate administrator of USDA's Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service, said the meetings were successful in advancing mutual understanding of each country's measures.
"We look forward to our meeting in Japan next month where we will finalize our technical report that will serve as the basis for the discussions between our governments to establish the terms by which beef trade will resume," Fernandez said in a statement.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said she was "hopeful" the United States would see progress soon in restoring a $1.4 billion market for American beef.
The department refused to disclose any details about the latest suspect animal's age, sex or location. "If we do have a positive animal, we would be releasing information on those," Clifford said.
Referring to tests still pending on the animal, Clifford said, "No matter how the result comes back, USDA remains confident of the safety of the U.S. food supply."
As of Monday, the department reported 8,585 negative tests for animals sent to slaughter this month.
The first confirmed U.S. case of mad cow disease was found last December in a dairy cow in Washington state. That case triggered a virtual worldwide ban on American beef shipments and prompted the department to expand its testing program to detect the disease.
The announcement of two inconclusive tests caused sharply lower prices for live and feeder cattle futures prices in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday.
The U.S. meat industry tried to calm fears of possibly more cases of mad cow disease. "The public and the markets need to realize that we're likely to hear more announcements about inconclusive results in the future and that it is in everybody's interest to not over-react," said J. Patrick Boyle, president of the American Meat Institute. (additional reporting by Christopher Doering)
