New case of mad cow disease discovered in California; First since 2006

Updated 6:50 PM ET

(CBS/AP) WASHINGTON - A new case of mad cow disease has surfaced in a dairy cow in California, but the animal was not bound for the nation's food supply and posed no danger, the Agriculture Department said Tuesday.

John Clifford, the department's chief veterinary officer, said the cow from central California did not enter the human food chain and that U.S. meat and dairy supplies are safe. It's the fourth such cow discovered in the United States since the government began inspecting for the disease to keep the food supply safe.

"There is really no cause for alarm here with regard to this animal," Clifford told reporters at a hastily convened press conference.

Clifford did not say when the disease was discovered or exactly where the cow was raised. He said the cow was at a rendering plant in Central California when the case was discovered through regular USDA sample testing.

This was an atypical mad cow case, said Jim Roth of Iowa State's Food Safety and Public Health Center, in an interview with CBS News. The cow's own brain proteins "misfolded" and caused the disease spontaneously and the cow did not catch the disease from bad feed or from another cow.

Atypical mad cow is not known to be transmissible, so neither animals nor humans could get sick from this cow.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. The World Health Organization has said that tests show that humans cannot be infected by drinking milk from BSE-infected animals.

The disease is always fatal in cattle, however. There have been three confirmed cases of BSE in the United states, in a Canadian-born cow in 2003 in Washington state, in 2005 in Texas and in 2006 in Alabama.

The Agriculture Department is sharing its lab results with international animal health officials in Canada and England, Clifford said. He said the California cow is an atypical case in that it didn't get the disease from eating infected cattle feed.

In people, eating meat contaminated with BSE is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare and deadly nerve disease. A massive outbreak of mad cow disease in the United Kingdom that peaked in 1993 was blamed for the deaths of 180,000 cattle and more than 150 people.

As reported by CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews, there have been three deaths in America from mad cow disease -- a brain-wasting infection with no cure -- but all three victims had spent many years eating beef overseas. No American is known to have died from consuming U.S. beef since the increased testing began nine years ago.

There have been a handful of cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease confirmed in people living in the United States, but those were linked to meat products in the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There are two concerns, reported Andrews. Beef exporters are already worried consumers in Asia will hear the words "mad cow" and slow down purchases of American beef. And even though the atypical form of the disease is not known to be a problem, no one knows what causes atypical mad cow or how many cases are going undetected.

[tvwatcher5345]

now i understand what's wrong with rick perry

[calif7]

Read two days ago in an AP report that Romney wants to increase Pentagon spending and reduce the tax rate further for the wealthy while reducing funding for food safety inspections, airline safety and border security. Notice that this cow's issue was discovered by regular USDA sample testing.

[karek40]

Lets see if I understand the situation, we know very little about the disease. Not sure how it is transmitted, one way is eating the body parts of an infected animal, there may be other ways. This animal was a milk cow and either its milk or dairy products from its milk have been consumed by us. Hmmm

[arkajun-2009]

Can't believe this disease has spread from the far left liberals in Kalifornia and now infects the bovine population.

[dman6015]

Well, guess this puts a bit of a crimp in the California Milk Advisory Board and the Real California Milk ad campaign.

[jonnyooh]

How in blue blazes did one cow get mad cow disease? Where did this cow catch his disease? I think it really needs looking into. Does anyone know if Romney kissed this particular cow? That would do it right there. I have heard nasty rumors that Republicans are really really really crazy about cows. If you know what I mean.

[lami987]

One cow infected is enough to raise flag for more testing. Only a very small number of cows are tested. Its a disgrace to ag. department and Clifford that he came out and claimed the case poses no problem to our food supply. They should have destroyed milk taken from the cow. Or destroy the whole batch of milk if already mixed with milk from other healthy cows. Claiming milk from cows with mad cow disease does not pose any problem is totally irresponsible. Consumers do not want to buy those milk and must not be duped into buying it. I even doubt if Clifford would drink the milk.

[NinthSt78]

Which cow has it and which cow doesn't? They all look so sweet and innocent.

[foo8259]

OK, time for the government to require all cows to be implanted with a microchip to track disease outbreaks as well as theft or loss?

[baileyccc]

They are so sloppy with beef, does anyone eat it any more? There is a reason why other countries won't import our beef.

[newsterrrr]

If you think its bad now, read the first 100 pages of Upton Sinclair's 1906 book "The jungle" free on archive.org
You will NEVER touch meat again after reading what meat packers in the Chicago stockyards did routinely to the meat and sold it as sausage, beef, and other meats.
Absolutely the sickest, nastiest filth I ever heard of in the name of profits, ugh!!! it just turned my stomach, it was 100000 times worse than that ammonia drenched krap they sell as lean beef filler or so called "pink slime" that's been in the news.

The book was the reason WHY we have the FDA and USDA, even with them in place there's no way this dead animal flesh industry changed its mindset and crookedness.