Agriculture officials say a rarely seen form of mad cow disease has been found in Alabama.
A statement from state Agriculture Commissioner John McMillan says atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy was confirmed in an 11-year-old beef cow.
The U.S. Agriculture Department says this only the fifth case of the atypical form of the disease being confirmed in the United States.
McMillan says the animal was discovered during routine screening at a livestock market. The cow wasn’t slaughtered and its meat didn’t enter the food chain.
Mad cow disease can spread from byproducts of cud-chewing animals being used in feed, but the state says that’s not what happened. The state is calling the discovery a “rare and spontaneous” case of the disease, which can occur in older animals.
30yrs ago when my children were young, McDonalds was a regular treat, Happy Meals in particular🙂 At some point, someone in our area actually was diagnosed with Mad Cow Disease, and for a while I restricted Happy Meals😏 We had no real idea whether there was much truth about Mad Cow Disease being passed into the food chain, there was a lot of speculation, scare mongering etc. Eventually publicity about the disease died down, and inevitably McDonalds once again became a firm favourite.
Basic advice to consumers at the time had been ‘avoid cheap bulk buy burgers and beef’. I suppose the hope was that official screening would ensure safety but there was always the chance contamination could slip through the net🤔xB