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Tough U.S. surveillance helps catch BSE

To USDA chief veterinarian Jack Shere, the recent case of atypical BSE found in a cow in Florida shows the surveillance system is working.

“We have one of the best surveillance systems in the world for this disease and we go well beyond—well beyond—what OIE has asked us to do as far as looking for this,” Shere says.

OIE is the acronym for the World Organization of Animal Health. “And we are listed as ‘negligible risk’, which means it has never been found in this country from a domestic origin animal, other than atypical,” Shere says.

In 2003, a single case of classical BSE was found in the U.S. in an animal that was imported from Canada. Since then, surveillance has been stepped up.

“We sample all neurologic cases that are reported to us. Animals that appear to have any types of staggering or any types of lameness demonstrated when they’re presented at slaughter. Any of those animals that die mysteriously on the farm. We sample all of those animals,” Shere says.

USDA stresses that the infected animal in Florida never entered slaughter channels and at no time presented a risk to the food supply, or to human health in the United States.