Mad Cow Case Probed at McDonald’s Italian Supplier
A suspected case of mad cow disease in Italy was found at a slaughterhouse that supplies meat to McDonald’s restaurants in Italy and elsewhere in Europe.
The slaughterhouse in Lodi, in the northern Lombardy region, belongs to the Cremonini group, the exclusive meat supplier for the American fast food giant’s restaurants across Italy, Cremonini spokesman Massimiliano Parboni said Monday.
Until Saturday, when the case was discovered, Italy had been considered mad cow-free. The only two cases reported there were in 1994, in two cows imported from Britain.
“We expected it, Italy could not be the exception,” Maria Caramelli told an Italian TV station Monday. She is on the team testing brain tissue from the cow. Final results of the tests, to be released Tuesday, were expected to confirm earlier tests.
Some scientists suspect that the disease can cause a similar, fatal brain-destroying ailment, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, in people who eat infected beef.
McDonald’s stood by its Italian supplier and asserted that the “quality, traceability and safety” of its beef fully protect consumers.
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