Consumers Assured U.S. Meat Is Safe After ‘Mad Cow’ Reports

U.S. farm groups reassured consumers on Monday that the U.S. food industry is perfectly safe from any contamination of a brain-wasting disease related to “mad cow” disease found in Vermont sheep.

The industry said the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s July 10 discovery of four imported sheep carrying transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, or TSE, was a reaffirmation of the aggressive food safety surveillance undertaken by the United States. TSE can cause scrapie in sheep and “mad cow” disease in cattle.

The USDA said Monday that 376 sheep imported from Europe, including the four sheep carrying TSE, were purchased by the department and will be killed and incinerated.

“Consumers should be very pleased. This is a case in which the government actually worked,” said Paul Rodgers, American Sheep Industry Assn. public health director.

The infected flocks were built with sheep imported from Belgium and the Netherlands in 1996. The USDA had routinely monitored these animals for any evidence of TSE since they arrived in the U.S. Milk from the sheep was sold and used to produce cheese that also was sold. USDA officials said consumption of these products by humans is perfectly safe.

The “mad cow” disease outbreak, first reported in Britain in 1986, was linked to at least 75 deaths. The disease has an incubation period in humans of more than 10 years.